Correlation between galaxy mergers and AGN activity

Using deep images taken at Maidanak 1.5m telescope, at McDonald 2.1m telescope and Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, Dupont 2.5m telescope we investigated the fraction of merging galaxies in hosts of 39 AGN which are brighter than M = -22 mag and nearer than z = 0.3. We found that 16 to 17 of 39 AGN host galaxies show the evidence of mergers like tidal tail, shell via careful visual inspection. We also studied with the merging fraction of a control sample, SDSS Stripe82 early type galaxies of which surface brightness limit and bulge magnitude are similar to that of the AGN sample. We found that merging fraction of the AGN sample is higher than that of early type galaxy samples in the whole range of bulge magnitude. This result implies that AGN activity may be correlated with merging. We also investigated the detailed morphology of merging feature. At least - 1/4 of control samples classified as a tidal and tidal+dust are shell structures. On the other hand only one (5.9%) of AGN sample classified as merger shows shell structures, and almost all merging AGNs show tidal tail features. From point of view that tidal tail may be at the early stage of merging, and shell may be at the late stage of mergers, this result suggests that AGN might be evolved into early-type galaxies after merging.