Evidence for Quasar Activity Triggered by Galaxy Mergers in HST Observations of Dust-reddened Quasars

Abstract

We present Hubble ACS images of thirteen dust reddened Type-1 quasars selected from the FIRST/2MASS Red Quasar Survey. These quasars have high intrinsic luminosities after correction for dust obscuration (-23.5 > M_B > -26.2 from K-magnitude). The images show strong evidence of recent or ongoing interaction in eleven of the thirteen cases, even before the quasar nucleus is subtracted. None of the host galaxies are well fit by a simple elliptical profile. The fraction of quasars showing interaction is significantly higher than the 30% seen in samples of host galaxies of normal, unobscured quasars. There is a weak correlation between the amount of dust reddening and the magnitude of interaction in the host galaxy, measured using the Gini coefficient and the Concentration index. Although few host galaxy studies of normal quasars are matched to ours in intrinsic quasar luminosity, no evidence has been found for a strong dependence of merger activity on host luminosity in samples of the host galaxies of normal quasars. We thus believe that the high merger fraction in our sample is related to their obscured nature, with a significant amount of reddening occurring in the host galaxy. The red quasar phenomenon seems to have an evolutionary explanation, with the young quasar spending the early part of its lifetime enshrouded in an interacting galaxy. This might be further indication of a link between AGN and starburst galaxies.

18 pages, 6 low resolution figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

References in corpus (9)

• An Observational Determination of the Bolometric Quasar Luminosity Function
• The synthesis of the cosmic X-ray background in the Chandra and XMM-Newton era
• Formation of z ~ 6 quasars from hierarchical galaxy mergers
• Signals from the Noise: Image Stacking for Quasars in the FIRST Survey
• Optical spectroscopy and X-ray detections of a sample of quasars and AGN selected in the mid-infrared from two Spitzer wide-area surveys
• The FIRST-2MASS Red Quasar Survey
• The host galaxies of luminous quasars
• Type II Quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: V. Imaging host galaxies with the Hubble Space Telescope
• Near Infrared Adaptive Optics Imaging of QSO Host Galaxies

Cited by in corpus (106)

• A Cosmological Framework for the Co-Evolution of Quasars, Supermassive Black Holes, and Elliptical Galaxies: I. Galaxy Mergers & Quasar Activity
• The bulk of the black hole growth since z~1 occurs in a secular universe: No major merger-AGN connection
• The Mean Star Formation Rate of X-ray selected Active Galaxies and its Evolution from z=2.5: Results from PEP-Herschel
• Galaxy pairs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey - IX: Merger-induced AGN activity as traced by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer
• Growing supermassive black holes in the late stages of galaxy mergers are heavily obscured
• Galaxy Interactions Trigger Rapid Black Hole Growth: an unprecedented view from the Hyper Suprime-Cam Survey
• A definitive merger-AGN connection at z~0 with CFIS: mergers have an excess of AGN and AGN hosts are more frequently disturbed
• X-shooter reveals powerful outflows in z~1.5 X-ray selected obscured quasi stellar objects
• Observational Constraints on the Feeding of Supermassive Black Holes
• Evidence for Merger Remnants in Early-Type Host Galaxies of Low-Redshift QSOs
• Host galaxies of luminous z$\sim$0.6 quasars: Major mergers are not prevalent at the highest AGN luminosities
• Extremely Red Quasars in BOSS
• Heavily reddened type 1 quasars at z > 2 I: Evidence for significant obscured black-hole growth at the highest quasar luminosities
• The M_BH - M_star relation for X-ray obscured, red QSOs at 1.2< z <2.6
• Spitzer Observations of Young Red Quasars
• A hard X-ray view of Luminous and Ultra-luminous Infrared Galaxies in GOALS: I - AGN obscuration along the merger sequence
• Fundamental differences in the radio properties of red and blue quasars: evolution strongly favoured over orientation
• The Spitzer mid-infrared AGN survey. II-the demographics and cosmic evolution of the AGN population
• NuSTAR observations of WISE J1036+0449, a Galaxy at z$\sim 1$ obscured by hot dust
• Correlation between Galaxy Mergers and Luminous AGN
• Is the Gini coefficient a stable measure of galaxy structure?
• The Discovery of Gas-Rich, Dusty Starbursts in Luminous Reddened Quasars at $z\sim 2.5$ with ALMA
• Exploring the AGN-ram pressure stripping connection in local clusters
• Evidence of suppression of star formation by quasar-driven winds in gas-rich host galaxies at z<1?
• BASS XXXVII: The role of radiative feedback in the growth and obscuration properties of nearby supermassive black holes
• Gravitational Wave Recoil Oscillations of Black Holes: Implications for Unified Models of Active Galactic Nuclei
• Radio Galaxy Zoo: A Search for Hybrid Morphology Radio Galaxies
• Fundamental differences in the radio properties of red and blue quasars: enhanced compact AGN emission in red quasars
• Buried Black Hole Growth in IR-selected Mergers: New Results from Chandra
• Galaxy interactions are the dominant trigger for local type 2 quasars
• Are red 2MASS QSOs young?
• Large-scale environments of narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies
• Supermassive black holes in disk-dominated galaxies outgrow their bulges and co-evolve with their host galaxies
• Fundamental differences in the radio properties of red and blue quasars: Insight from the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS)
• Galaxy Zoo: major galaxy mergers are not a significant quenching pathway
• Galaxy mergers up to z < 2.5 II: AGN incidence of merging galaxies at separations of 3-15 kpc
• Hidden or missing outflows in highly obscured galaxy nuclei?
• Investigating the Effect of Galaxy Interactions on Star Formation at 0.5<z<3.0
• The role of the most luminous, obscured AGN in galaxy assembly at z~2
• Limits to Rest-Frame Ultraviolet Emission From Far-Infrared-Luminous z~6 Quasar Hosts
• The Physical Properties of Low Redshift FeLoBAL Quasars. I. Spectral Synthesis Analysis of the BAL Outflows using $SimBAL$
• Close companions to two high-redshift quasars
• The Role of Major Mergers and Nuclear Star Formation in Nearby Obscured Quasars
• ALMA Observations of Quasar Host Galaxies at $z\simeq 4.8$
• The fraction and kinematics of broad absorption line quasars across cosmic time
• The WISE-2MASS Survey: Red Quasars Into the Radio Quiet Regime
• A large sample of Kohonen selected E+A (post-starburst) galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Subaru High-z Exploration of Low-Luminosity Quasars (SHELLQs) XII. Extended [C II] Structure (Merger or Outflow) in a z = 6.72 Red Quasar
• A Multiwavelength Study of Active Galactic Nuclei in Post-Merger Remnants
• A Hubble Space Telescope Imaging Survey of Low-Redshift Swift-BAT Active Galaxies
• Broad Absorption Line Variability in Radio-Loud Quasars
• A Chandra Survey of the X-ray Properties of Broad Absorption Line Radio-Loud Quasars
• Observational evidence that positive and negative AGN feedback depends on galaxy mass and jet power
• Constraints on Supermassive Black Hole Binaries from JWST and NANOGrav
• An IFU View of the Active Galactic Nuclei in MaNGA Galaxy Pairs
• Driving the Growth of the Earliest Supermassive Black Holes with Major Mergers of Host Galaxies
• Near Infrared Spectra and Intrinsic Luminosities of Candidate Type II Quasars at 2 < z < 3.4
• Probing the Inner Circumgalactic Medium and Quasar Illumination around the Reddest `Extremely Red Quasar' (ERQ)
• A Census of WISE-selected Dual and Offset AGN Across the Sky: New Constraints on Merger-Driven Triggering of Obscured AGN
• Peering through the dust II: $XMM-Newton$ observations of two additional FIRST-2MASS red quasars
• A Highly Magnified Gravitationally Lensed Red QSO at z = 2.5 with a Significant Flux Ratio Anomaly
• The Hunt for Red Quasars: Luminous Obscured Black Hole Growth Unveiled in the Stripe 82 X-ray Survey
• Dust and Power: Unravelling the merger - active galactic nucleus connection in the second half of cosmic history
• Jetted narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies breaking the jet paradigm -- a comprehensive study of host galaxy morphologies
• A new discovery space opened by eROSITA: Ionised AGN outflows from X-ray selected samples
• Resolving Disks & Mergers in $z\sim 2$ Heavily Reddened Quasars and their Companion Galaxies with ALMA
• Powerful Radio-Loud Quasars are Triggered by Galaxy Mergers in the Cosmic Bright Ages
• A novel Bayesian approach for decomposing the radio emission of quasars: I. Modelling the radio excess in red quasars
• Effect of richness on AGN and star formation activities in SDSS galaxy groups
• Estimators of Bolometric Luminosity and Black Hole Mass with Mid-infrared Continuum Luminosities for Dust-obscured Quasars: Prevalence of Dust-obscured SDSS Quasars
• A Big Red Dot: Scattered light, host galaxy signatures and multi-phase gas flows in a luminous, heavily reddened quasar at cosmic noon
• Medium-resolution Optical and Near-Infrared Spectral Atlas of 16 2MASS-selected NIR-red Active Galactic Nuclei at $z\sim 0.3$
• UV-Luminous, Star-Forming Hosts of z~2 Reddened Quasars in the Dark Energy Survey
• Host Dark Matter Halos of SDSS Red and Blue Quasars: No Significant Difference in Large-scale Environment
• Extended multiwavelength fuzz around red quasars: observational appearance of radiative feedback in action
• Reddening and He I* $\lambda 10830$ Absorption Lines in Three Narrow-line Seyfert 1 Galaxies
• A Candidate Dual QSO at Cosmic Noon
• AGNs in Small Galaxy Systems: comparing the main properties of active objects in pairs, triplets and groups
• Obscured AGN enhancement in galaxy pairs at cosmic noon: evidence from a probabilistic treatment of photometric redshifts
• Accretion and Obscuration in Merger-Dominated Luminous Red Quasars
• The interplay between radio AGN activity and their host galaxies
• The Host Galaxies and Narrow Line Regions of Four Double-Peaked [OIII] AGN
• AGN Triality of Triple Mergers: Multi-wavelength Classifications
• Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph Integral Field Unit Spectroscopy of the Double-peaked Broad Emission Line of a Red Active Galactic Nucleus
• Eddington Ratios of Dust-obscured Quasars at $z\lesssim 1$: Evidence Supporting Dust-obscured Quasars as Young Quasars
• Circumnuclear Molecular Gas in Low-redshift Quasars and Matched Star-forming Galaxies
• A post-merger enhancement only in star-forming Type 2 Seyfert galaxies: the deep learning view
• LeMMINGs. VI. Connecting nuclear activity to bulge properties of active and inactive galaxies: radio scaling relations and galaxy environment
• Using Machine Learning to Determine Morphologies of $z<1$ AGN Host Galaxies in the Hyper Suprime-Cam Wide Survey
• A Morphological Study on AGN-host Dwarf Galaxies
• Quasar radiation transforms the gas in a merging companion galaxy
• Forming Stars in a Dual AGN Host: Molecular and Ionized Gas in the Nearby, Luminous Infrared Merger, Mrk 266
• Evidence for radio loud to radio quiet evolution from red and blue quasars
• ALMA survey of a massive node of the Cosmic Web at $z\sim 3$. II. A dynamically cold and massive disk galaxy in the proximity of a hyperluminous quasar
• Subaru High-z Exploration of Low-Luminosity Quasars (SHELLQs). XIV. A Candidate Type-II Quasar at z=6.1292
• The Nature of LoBAL QSOs: II. HST/WFC3 Observations Reveal Host Galaxies Dominated by Mergers
• Lower-Luminosity Obscured AGN Host Galaxies are Not Predominantly in Major-Merging Systems at Cosmic Noon
• Interactions among intermediate redshift galaxies. The case of SDSSJ134420.86+663717.8
• Measuring the ISM Content of Nearby, Luminous, Type 1 and Type 2 QSOs through CO and [C II]
• JWST Spectroscopic View of a Rapidly Growing Dust-obscured Quasar at $z\sim 4$: Effect of Dust Extinction Correction on Black Hole Mass and Eddington Ratio Estimation
• The major merger-active galactic nucleus connection up to the cosmic noon
• The morphology and kinematics of the galaxy group AM 1054-325: A MUSE perspective
• Understanding the Nature of an Unusual Post-Starburst Quasar with Exceptionally Strong Ne V Emission
• Unravelling the origin of extended radio emission in narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies with the JVLA
• Merger or Not: Accounting for Human Biases in Identifying Galactic Merger Signatures
• Investigating the Impacts of AGN Activities on Dwarf Galaxies with FAST HI Observations