The Role of Mergers in Early-type Galaxy Evolution and Black Hole Growth
Kevin Schawinski, Nathan Dowlin, Daniel Thomas, C. Megan Urry, Edward, Edmondson

TL;DR
This study shows that major mergers in early-type galaxies are linked to AGN activity, with observable merger features fading over hundreds of millions of years, explaining the weak observed connection.
Contribution
It provides empirical evidence connecting recent mergers to AGN phases in low-mass early-type galaxies, clarifying the timing between starbursts and AGN activity.
Findings
High merger disturbance fraction during early starburst phase
Merger features decline to background levels within hundreds of Myr
Weak link between mergers and AGN activity explained by time delay
Abstract
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 SDSS 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…
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