A weak lensing comparability study of galaxy mergers that host AGNs
  We compared the total mass density profiles of three different types of
galaxies using weak gravitational lensing: (i) 29 galaxies that host quasars at
z~0.32 that are in a post-starburst (PSQ) phase with high star formation
indicating recent merger activity, (ii) 22 large elliptical galaxies from the
SLACS sample that do not host a quasar at z~0.23, and (iii) 17 galaxies that
host moderately luminous quasars at z~0.36 powered by disk instabilities, but
with no intense star formation. On an initial test we found no evidence for a
connection between the merger state of a galaxy and the profile of the halo,
with the PSQ profile comparable to that of the other two samples and consistent
with the Leauthaud et al. (2014) study of moderately luminous quasars in
COSMOS. Given the compatibility of the two quasar samples, we combined these
and found no evidence for any connection between black hole activity and the
dark matter halo. All three mass profiles remained compatible with
isothermality given the present data.
