Active galactic nuclei and the minor merger hypothesis

Abstract

We have investigated the dynamics of the merging process in the minor merger hypothesis for active galactic nuclei. We find that for a satellite galaxy to be able to merge directly with the nucleus of the host galaxy (for example, to give rise to the compact dust discs which are seen in early type active galaxies) requires the initial orbit of the satellite to be well aimed. For the case of the host galaxy being a disc galaxy, if the initial orbits of the satellites are randomly oriented with respect to the host galaxy, then the orbits of those which reach the host nuclear regions in a reasonable time, are also fairly randomly oriented once they reach the nucleus. We note that this result might be able to provide an explanation of why the jet directions in the nuclei of Seyfert galaxies are apparently unrelated to the plane of the galaxy discs.

Accepted for publication by MNRAS

References in corpus (20)

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Cited by in corpus (12)

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• Fuelling Active Galactic Nuclei
• The evolution of misaligned accretion discs and spinning black holes
• Dynamics of galaxy cores and supermassive black holes
• Dynamical friction for dark halo satellites: effects of tidal massloss and growing host potential
• On the evolution of gas clouds exposed to AGN radiation. I. Three-dimensional radiation hydrodynamic simulations
• A Minor Merger Caught In The Act Of Fueling The AGN In Mrk 509
• Galactic Centre star formation: the case of the missing gas disc
• Radio Bimodality: Spin, Accretion Mode, or Both?
• Episodic activities of supermassive black holes at redshift $z\le 2$: driven by mergers?
• Alignments Of Black Holes With Their Warped Accretion Disks And Episodic Lifetimes Of Active Galactic Nuclei
• [CII] and CO Emission Along the Bar and Counter-Arms of NGC 7479