2019 Winner: An Analysis into the AGN Fraction in Dark Energy Survey Galaxy Clusters

Project Information
An Analysis into the AGN Fraction in Dark Energy Survey Galaxy Clusters
Physical and Biological Sciences
Physics (Astrophysics)
The relationship between a galaxy’s evolution and its supermassive black hole is not well understood and is an active topic of investigation. It is theorized that Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are part of a galaxy’s life cycle and thus can be indicative of its phase of evolution. In this thesis, we use the Dark Energy Survey (DES) redMaPPer 6.4.22+2 catalog of galaxy clusters and Chandra Observatory archival data to investigate the correlation between the fraction of galaxies hosting AGN and cluster redshift and richness. We obtain a sample of 456 X-ray AGN in 26023 galaxies in 274 galaxy clusters using a Python matching program. A preliminary analysis shows that, above a redshift of 0.4, there is a positive trend of AGN fraction and redshift and, below a redshift cut of 0.6, there is a negative trend of AGN and richness. Luminosity cuts are not made, so no large conclusions can be drawn.
PDF icon 1131.pdf
Students
  • Raziq Shaquille Noorali (Porter)
Mentors