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.