Gordon, YA, Owers, MS, Pimbblet, KA, Croom, SM, Alpaslan, M, Baldry, IK, Brough, S, Brown, MJI, Cluver, ME, Conselice, CJ, Davies, LJM, Holwerda, BW, Hopkins, AM, Gunawardhana, MLP, Loveday, J, Taylor, EN and Wang, L (2016) Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Active Galactic Nuclei in Pairs of Galaxies. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. ISSN 0035-8711

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Abstract

There exist conflicting observations on whether or not the environment of broad and narrow line AGN differ and this consequently questions the validity of the AGN unification model. The high spectroscopic completeness of the GAMA survey makes it ideal for a comprehensive analysis of the close environment of galaxies. To exploit this, and conduct a comparative analysis of the environment of broad and narrow line AGN within GAMA, we use a double-Gaussian emission line fitting method to model the more complex line profiles associated with broad line AGN. We select 209 type 1 (i.e., unobscured), 464 type 1.5-1.9 (partially obscured), and 281 type 2 (obscured) AGN within the GAMA II database. Comparing the fractions of these with neighbouring galaxies out to a pair separation of $350\,\text{kpc }h^{-1}$ and $\Delta z < 0.012$ shows no difference between AGN of different type, except at separations less than $20\,\text{kpc }h^{-1}$ where our observations suggest an excess of type 2 AGN in close pairs. We analyse the properties of the galaxies neighbouring our AGN and find no significant differences in colour or the star formation activity of these galaxies. Further to this we find that $\Sigma_5$ is also consistent between broad and narrow line AGN. We conclude that the observations presented here are consistent with AGN unification.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society following peer review. The version of record Yjan A. Gordon, Matt S. Owers, Kevin A. Pimbblet, Scott M. Croom, Mehmet Alpaslan, Ivan K. Baldry, Sarah Brough, Michael J.I. Brown, Michelle E. Cluver, Christopher J. Conselice, Luke J.M. Davies, Benne W. Holwerda, Andrew M. Hopkins, Madusha L.P. Gunawardhana, Jonathan Loveday, Edward N. Taylor, and Lingyu Wang Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Active Galactic Nuclei in Pairs of Galaxies MNRAS doi:10.1093/mnras/stw2925 first published online November 14, 2016 is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stw2925
Uncontrolled Keywords:	astro-ph.GA; astro-ph.GA
Subjects:	Q Science > QB Astronomy Q Science > QC Physics
Divisions:	Astrophysics Research Institute
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Related URLs:	Author
Date Deposited:	25 Nov 2016 09:34
Last Modified:	04 Sep 2021 04:09
DOI or ID number:	10.1093/mnras/stw2925
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/4871

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