The AGN Luminosity Fraction in Merging Galaxies

2); (2) University of Arizona Astronomy Department; 3); (3) Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Department of Physics; (4) Flatiron Institute Center for Computational Astrophysics; 5); (5) Leiden Observatory; (6) California Institute of Technology Department of Astronomy; 7; (7) University of Crete Physics Department & Institute of Theoretical Computational Physics

arxiv: 1801.04328 · v2 · pith:POXEHIL2new · submitted 2018-01-12 · 🌌 astro-ph.GA

The AGN Luminosity Fraction in Merging Galaxies

Jeremy Dietrich (1 , 2) , Aaron S. Weiner (1 , 3) , Matthew L.N. Ashby (1) , Christopher C. Hayward (4) , Juan Rafael Mart\'inez-Galarza (1) , Andr\'es F. Ramos Padilla (1

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5) Lee Rosenthal (6) Howard A. Smith (1) S.P. Willner (1) Andreas Zezas (1 7 8) ((1) Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Cambridge MA (2) University of Arizona Astronomy Department Steward Observatory Tucson AZ (3) Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Department of Physics Applied Physics Astronomy Troy NY (4) Flatiron Institute Center for Computational Astrophysics New York (5) Leiden Observatory Leiden Netherlands (6) California Institute of Technology Department of Astronomy Pasadena CA (7) University of Crete Physics Department & Institute of Theoretical Computational Physics Heraklion Crete Greece (8) Foundation for Research Technology-Hellas Greece)

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keywords galaxymergerssamplegalaxiesinfraredluminosityevolutionfraction

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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 to the total luminosity, at what interaction stages they occur, and how long they persist. Here we estimate the fraction of the bolometric infrared (IR) luminosity that can be attributed to AGN by measuring and modeling the full ultraviolet to far-infrared spectral energy distributions (SEDs) in up to 33 broad bands for 24 merging galaxies with the Code for Investigating Galaxy Emission. In addition to a sample of 12 confirmed AGN in late-stage mergers, found in the $Infrared$ $Array$ $Satellite$ Revised Bright Galaxy Sample or Faint Source Catalog, our sample includes a comparison sample of 12 galaxy mergers from the $Spitzer$ Interacting Galaxies Survey, mostly early-stage. We perform identical SED modeling of simulated mergers to validate our methods, and we supplement the SED data with mid-IR spectra of diagnostic lines obtained with $Spitzer$ InfraRed Spectrograph. The estimated AGN contributions to the IR luminosities vary from system to system from 0% up to 91% but are significantly greater in the later-stage, more luminous mergers, consistent with what is known about galaxy evolution and AGN triggering.

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