Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Active Galactic Nuclei in Pairs of Galaxies

Abstract

There exist conflicting observations on whether or not the environment of broad and narrow line AGN differ and this consequently questions the validity of the AGN unification model. The high spectroscopic completeness of the GAMA survey makes it ideal for a comprehensive analysis of the close environment of galaxies. To exploit this, and conduct a comparative analysis of the environment of broad and narrow line AGN within GAMA, we use a double-Gaussian emission line fitting method to model the more complex line profiles associated with broad line AGN. We select 209 type 1 (i.e., unobscured), 464 type 1.5-1.9 (partially obscured), and 281 type 2 (obscured) AGN within the GAMA II database. Comparing the fractions of these with neighbouring galaxies out to a pair separation of $350\text{kpc }{h}^{-1}$ and $\Delta z<0.012$ shows no difference between AGN of different type, except at separations less than $20\text{kpc }{h}^{-1}$ where our observations suggest an excess of type 2 AGN in close pairs. We analyse the properties of the galaxies neighbouring our AGN and find no significant differences in colour or the star formation activity of these galaxies. Further to this we find that ${\Sigma }_5$ is also consistent between broad and narrow line AGN. We conclude that the observations presented here are consistent with AGN unification.

arXiv comment16 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

References in corpus (56)

• Astropy: A Community Python Package for Astronomy
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Technical Summary
• Galactic Stellar and Substellar Initial Mass Function
• The Seventh Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• The Host Galaxies of AGN
• The Origin of the Mass--Metallicity Relation: Insights from 53,000 Star-Forming Galaxies in the SDSS
• Theoretical Modeling of Starburst Galaxies
• Spectroscopic Target Selection in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: The Main Galaxy Sample
• Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): survey diagnostics and core data release
• Differential Galaxy Evolution in Cluster and Field Galaxies at z=0.3
• The SAURON project - V. Integral-field emission-line kinematics of 48 elliptical and lenticular galaxies
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly: Stellar Mass Estimates
• The 2dF QSO Redshift Survey - XII. The spectroscopic catalogue and luminosity function
• A comprehensive classification of galaxies in the SDSS: How to tell true from fake AGN?
• An Efficient Algorithm for Positioning Tiles in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): end of survey report and data release 2
• The 6dF Galaxy Survey: Samples, Observational Techniques and the First Data Release
• Galaxy Pairs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey I: Star Formation, AGN Fraction, and the Luminosity/Mass-Metallicity Relation
• The WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey: Survey Design and First Data Release
• On the Estimation of Confidence Intervals for Binomial Population Proportions in Astronomy: The Simplicity and Superiority of the Bayesian Approach
• The VIMOS VLT Deep Survey - First epoch VVDS-Deep survey: 11564 spectra with 17.5<=IAB<=24, and the redshift distribution over 0< z <=5
• The VIMOS VLT Deep Survey final data release: a spectroscopic sample of 35016 galaxies and AGN out to z~6.7 selected with 17.5<=i_{AB}<=24.7
• Galaxy pairs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey - IV: Interactions trigger AGN
• Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): The GAMA Galaxy Group Catalogue (G3Cv1)
• SDSS IV MaNGA - Spatially resolved diagnostic diagrams: A proof that many galaxies are LIERs
• The nature of LINER galaxies: Ubiquitous hot old stars and rare accreting black holes
• The Relationship of Hard X-ray and Optical Line Emission in Low Redshift Active Galactic Nuclei
• The Environment of AGNs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Galaxy pairs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey - IX: Merger-induced AGN activity as traced by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer
• Galaxy pairs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey - VI. The orbital extent of enhanced star formation in interacting galaxies
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): The star formation rate dependence of the stellar initial mass function
• The Millennium Galaxy Catalogue: 16 < B_MGC < 24 galaxy counts and the calibration of the local galaxy luminosity function
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Spectroscopic analysis
• Hidden Broad Line Seyfert 2 Galaxies in the CfA and 12micron Samples
• The 2dF-SDSS LRG and QSO (2SLAQ) Luminous Red Galaxy Survey
• On the Unification of Active Galactic Nuclei
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Galaxy close-pairs, mergers, and the future fate of stellar mass
• Are Compton-Thick AGN the Missing Link Between Mergers and Black Hole Growth?
• Reliable random error estimation in the measurement of line-strength indices
• The Luminosity Dependence of the Galaxy Merger Rate
• Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): Optimal Tiling of Dense Surveys with a Multi-Object Spectrograph
• The 2dF-SDSS LRG and QSO Survey: The spectroscopic QSO catalogue
• The most-luminous heavily-obscured quasars have a high merger fraction: morphological study of WISE-selected hot dust-obscured galaxies
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): the effect of close interactions on star formation in galaxies
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Refining the Local Galaxy Merger Rate using Morphological Information
• First results from the 2dF galaxy redshift survey
• The Close Environment of Seyfert Galaxies and Its Implication for Unification Models
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Resolving the role of environment in galaxy evolution
• The drivers of AGN activity in galaxy clusters: AGN fraction as a function of mass and environment
• [O III]$\lambda 5007$ and X-ray Properties of a Complete Sample of Hard X-ray Selected AGNs in the Local Universe
• Local and Large scale Environment of Seyfert Galaxies
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): growing up in a bad neighbourhood - how do low-mass galaxies become passive?
• The different neighbours around Type-1 and Type-2 active galactic nuclei
• The Circum-Galactic Environment of Bright IRAS Galaxies
• Spectral and morphological properties of quasar hosts in SPH simulations of AGN feeding by mergers
• The environments and clustering properties of 2dFGRS-selected starburst galaxies

Cited by in corpus (44)

• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): the G02 field, Herschel-ATLAS target selection and Data Release 3
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Data Release 4 and the z < 0.1 total and z < 0.08 morphological galaxy stellar mass functions
• Stochastic modeling of star-formation histories I: the scatter of the star-forming main sequence
• Mergers Do Trigger AGNs out to z $\sim$ 0.6
• The Taipan Galaxy Survey: Scientific Goals and Observing Strategy
• Using dust, gas and stellar mass selected samples to probe dust sources and sinks in low metallicity galaxies
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): The mechanisms for quiescent galaxy formation at $z<1$
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly: The 1.4GHz SFR indicator, SFR-M* relation and predictions for ASKAP-GAMA
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Environmental Quenching of Centrals and Satellites in Groups
• SDSS-IV MaNGA: Spatial Evolution of Star Formation Triggered by Galaxy Interactions
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): impact of the group environment on galaxy star formation
• Deep Extragalactic VIsible Legacy Survey (DEVILS): Identification of AGN through SED Fitting and the Evolution of the Bolometric AGN Luminosity Function
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): The sSFR-M* relation part I - ${\sigma }_{\mathrm{sSFR}}$-M* as a function of sample, SFR indicator and environment
• Spatial clustering and halo occupation distribution modeling of local AGN via cross-correlation measurements with 2MASS galaxies
• Exploring the properties of warm and cold atomic hydrogen in the Taurus and Gemini regions
• Star-forming early- and quiescent late-type galaxies in the local Universe
• The fate of the interstellar medium in early-type galaxies. I. First direct measurement of the timescale of dust removal
• Hundreds of Low-Mass Active Galaxies in the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) Survey
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Blue spheroids within 87 Mpc
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): The effect of galaxy group environment on active galactic nuclei
• Systematic biases in determining dust attenuation curves through galaxy SED fitting
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): the interplay between galaxy mass, SFR and heavy element abundance in paired galaxy sets
• The Effect of Minor and Major Mergers on the Evolution of Low Excitation Radio Galaxies
• The colors of bulges and disks in the core and outskirts of galaxy clusters
• Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): A $\text{WISE}$ study of the activity of emission-line systems in G23
• The XXL Survey: XXXVII. The role of the environment in shaping the stellar population properties of galaxies at 0.1<z<0.5
• The Origin of Lopsided Satellite Galaxy Distribution in Galaxy Pairs
• The fate of the interstellar medium in early-type galaxies. III. The mechanism of ISM removal and quenching of star formation
• Galaxy classification: A machine learning analysis of GAMA catalogue data
• Modelling emission lines in star forming galaxies
• Star forming and gas rich brightest cluster galaxies at $z\sim 0.4$ in the Kilo-Degree Survey
• Average X-ray properties of galaxy groups. From Milky Way-like halos to massive clusters
• Connecting MeerKAT radio continuum properties to GAMA optical emission-line and WISE mid-infrared activity
• Probing star formation and ISM properties using galaxy disk inclination III: Evolution in dust opacity and clumpiness between redshift 0.0 < z < 0.7 constrained from UV to NIR
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Stellar-to-Dynamical Mass Relation I. Constraining the Precision of Stellar Mass Estimates
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): the signatures of galaxy interactions as viewed from small scale galaxy clustering
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): The environmental impact on SFR and metallicity in galaxy groups
• The XXL Survey XLV. Linking the ages of optically selected groups to their X-ray emission
• Star forming brightest cluster galaxies at $z\sim 0.4$ in KiDS. Further studies of cold gas and stellar properties
• The Impact of Disturbed Galaxy Clusters on the Kinematics of Active Galactic Nuclei
• Interactions among intermediate redshift galaxies. The case of SDSSJ134420.86+663717.8
• Identification of Anomalous E+A Galaxies in GAMA Using an Isolation Forest
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly: A new approach to quantifying dust in galaxies
• Deep ASKAP EMU Survey of the GAMA23 field: Properties of radio sources