NEWLY DISCOVERED FOOTPRINTS OF GALAXY INTERACTION AROUND SEYFERT 2 GALAXY NGC 7743

It has been suggested that only the most luminous AGNs ($L{\gtrsim}10^{45}erg/s$) are triggered by galaxy mergers, while less luminous AGNs ($L{\sim}10^{43}erg/s$) are driven by other internal processes. The lack of merging features in low luminosity AGN host galaxies has been a primary argument against the idea of merger triggering of low luminosity AGNs. But a merger, especially a rather minor one, might still have played an important role in low luminosity AGNs, as minor merging features at low luminosities are more difficult to identify than major merging features. Using SNUCAM on the 1.5 m telescope at Maidanak observatory, we obtained deep optical images of NGC 7743, a barred spiral galaxy classified as a Seyfert 2 AGN with a low bolometric luminosity of $5{\times}10^{42}erg/s$. Surprisingly, we discovered a merging feature around the galaxy, which indicates past merging activity in the galaxy. This example indicates that the merging fraction of low luminosity AGNs may be much higher than previously thought, hinting at the importance of galaxy mergers even in low luminosity AGNs.