Lower-Luminosity Obscured AGN Host Galaxies are Not Predominantly in
  Major-Merging Systems at Cosmic Noon
  For over 60 years, the scientific community has studied actively growing
central super-massive black holes (active galactic nuclei -- AGN) but
fundamental questions on their genesis remain unanswered. Numerical simulations
and theoretical arguments show that black hole growth occurs during short-lived
periods ($\sim$ 10$^{7}$ -10$^{8}$ yr) of powerful accretion. Major mergers are
commonly invoked as the most likely dissipative process to trigger the rapid
fueling of AGN. If the AGN-merger paradigm is true, we expect galaxy mergers to
coincide with black hole accretion during a heavily obscured AGN phase (N$_H$ $
> 10^{23}$ cm$^{-2}$). Starting from one of the largest samples of obscured AGN
at 0.5 $<$ $z$ $<$ 3.1, we select 40 non-starbursting lower-luminosity obscured
AGN. We then construct a one-to-one matched redshift- and near-IR
magnitude-matched non-starbursting inactive galaxy control sample. Combining
deep color \textit{Hubble Space Telescope} imaging and a novel method of human
classification, we test the merger-AGN paradigm prediction that heavily
obscured AGN are strongly associated with galaxies undergoing a major merger.
On the total sample of 80 galaxies, we estimate each individual classifier's
accuracy at identifying merging galaxies/post-merging systems and isolated
galaxies. We calculate the probability of each galaxy being in either a major
merger or isolated system, given the accuracy of the human classifiers and the
individual classifications of each galaxy. We do not find statistically
significant evidence that obscured AGN at cosmic noon are predominately found
in systems with evidence of significant merging/post-merging features.
