Central objectives: this project has two central objectives: 1) to build a catalog of host galaxies for active galactic nuclei (AGN) detected by the wide-field infrared survey explorer (WISE). The…

This is a $440,454.47 grant awarded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to The Regents of the University of Colorado, acting through its Office of Contracts and Grants Division. The grant supports a two-year project with the following objectives: 1) Building a publicly available catalog of physical properties for Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) detected by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and their host galaxies, and 2) Analyzing the co-evolution of supermassive black holes and their host galaxies during galaxy mergers. The research methods involve compiling multi-wavelength data on ~1,800,000 WISE AGN, deriving key physical properties, and assembling a sample of ~20,000 interacting AGN pairs for in-depth study. This work aligns with NASA's Astrophysics Division focus areas on galaxy evolution and black hole growth. The grant was awarded without a set-aside designation to the University of Colorado, a public research institution with expertise in space physics, climate science, and other areas of fundamental research supporting NASA's mission.

Central objectives: this project has two central objectives: 1) to build a catalog of host galaxies for active galactic nuclei (AGN) detected by the wide-field infrared survey explorer (WISE). The catalog will consist of photometric redshifts, galaxy masses, star-formation rates (SFRS), AGN bolometric luminosities, and measures of AGN obscuration. Completion of this objective will result a publicly available catalog of physical properties for WISE AGN and their host galaxies for future scientific use among the community. 2) to complete a comprehensive analysis of how supermassive black holes (SMBHS) and their host galaxies evolve throughout galaxy mergers. Notably, the all sky coverage of WISE will enable US to build the largest yet assembled sample of obscured and unobscured AGN pairs. By addressing our primary science questions, we will constrain how AGN obscuration evolves with merger stage, how this affects the corresponding smbh growth, and how IT is related to on-going star-formation in the host galaxies. Methods and techniques: we will first build a sample of ~1,800,000 WISE AGN with multi-wavelength photometry from WISE, the two micron all sky survey (2MASS), the panoramic survey telescope and rapid response system, and the galaxy evolution explorer (GALEX). After fitting models to the spectral energy distributions, we will derive physical properties (photometric redshifts, galaxy SFRS, stellar masses, AGN luminosities, and AGN obscuration) and compile them in a publicly available catalog. From the catalog of WISE AGN host galaxies, we will assemble a sample of ~20,000 pairs of WISE AGN in physically interacting galaxies. Our methods for pair selection will be conservative to ensure that the WISE AGN pairs are truly interacting. We will also construct matched control samples for each WISE AGN in the pair sample. From this sample, we will address the following primary science questions: 1: does smbh obscuration evolve in galaxy mergers? 2: is smbh growth correlated with obscuration? 3: are AGN and SFR correlated in galaxy mergers? We will also address the following ancillary science questions: 1. What is the effect of merger MASS ratio? 2. Is the more luminous AGN in the more or less massive galaxy? Perceived significance: the primary objectives of this program are relevant to the NASA adap's goal for analyzing publicly available data from WISE, 2MASS, and GALEX. The proposed project is in-line with the galaxy focus area of the NASA astrophysics division in that IT directly aims to address the outstanding issue of galaxy evolution, particularly with respect to CO-evolution with the central AGN. The project is also in-line with the black holes focus area as IT will provide constraints on growth routes of SMBHS.