Journal
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL LETTERS
Volume 714, Issue 1, Pages L108-L112Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/714/1/L108
Keywords
galaxies: active; galaxies: evolution; galaxies: formation; galaxies: interactions; galaxies: Seyfert
Categories
Funding
- NASA [PF9-00069, NAS8-03060]
- NSF [AST0407295]
- STFC
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
- American Museum of Natural History
- Astrophysical Institute Potsdam
- University of Basel
- University of Cambridge
- Case Western Reserve University
- University of Chicago
- Drexel University
- Fermilab
- Institute for Advanced Study
- Japan Participation Group
- Johns Hopkins University
- Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics
- Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology
- Korean Scientist Group
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (LAMOST)
- Los Alamos National Laboratory
- Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy (MPIA)
- Max-Planck-Institute or Astrophysics (MPA)
- New Mexico State University, Ohio State University
- University of Pittsburgh
- University of Portsmouth
- Princeton University
- United States Naval Observatory
- University of Washington
- National Science Foundation
- U.S. Department of Energy
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Japanese Monbukagakusho
- Max Planck Society
- Higher Education Funding Council for England
- STFC [ST/F002335/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- Science and Technology Facilities Council [ST/F002335/1] Funding Source: researchfish
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Models of galaxy formation invoke the major merger of gas-rich progenitor galaxies as the trigger for significant phases of black hole growth and the associated feedback that suppresses star formation to create red spheroidal remnants. However, the observational evidence for the connection between mergers and active galactic nucleus (AGN) phases is not clear. We analyze a sample of low-mass early-type galaxies known to be in the process of migrating from the blue cloud to the red sequence via an AGN phase in the green valley. Using deeper imaging from Sloan Digital Sky Survey Stripe 82, we show that the fraction of objects with major morphological disturbances is high during the early starburst phase, but declines rapidly to the background level seen in quiescent early-type galaxies by the time of substantial AGN radiation several hundred Myr after the starburst. This observation empirically links the AGN activity in low-redshift early-type galaxies to a significant merger event in the recent past. The large time delay between the merger-driven starburst and the peak of AGN activity allows for the merger features to decay to the background and hence may explain the weak link between merger features and AGN activity in the literature.
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