The nature of obscuration in AGN: II. insights from clustering properties

TL;DR

This study explores how galaxy interactions influence active galactic nuclei (AGN) obscuration, revealing that mid-IR bright AGNs are more often found near neighbors, indicating a link between interactions and torus formation.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the connection between galaxy interactions and AGN obscuration by analyzing clustering properties and neighbor counts.

Findings

Mid-IR bright AGNs have more near neighbors within 100 kpc.

AGNs with stronger [OIII] emission do not show excess neighbors.

Neighbor count increases as projected radius decreases.

Abstract

Based on large optical and mid-infrared (IR) surveys, we investigate the relation between nuclear activity in local Seyfert 2 galaxies and galaxy interactions using a statistical neighbour counting technique. At the same level of host galaxy star formation (SF), we find that active galactic nuclei (AGNs) with stronger [OIII] emission lines do not show an excess of near neighbours, while AGNs with stronger mid-IR emission do have more near neighbours within a projected distance of 100 kpc. The excess neighbour count increases with decreasing projected radius. These results suggest a phase of torus formation during galaxy interactions.