Morphologies of low-redshift AGN host galaxies: what role does AGN
  luminosity play?
  Mergers of galaxies have been suspected to be a major trigger of AGN activity
for many years. However, when compared to carefully matched control samples,
AGN host galaxies often show no enhanced signs of interaction. A common
explanation for this lack of observed association between AGN and mergers has
often been that while mergers are of importance for triggering AGN, they only
dominate at the very high luminosity end of the AGN population. In this study,
we compare the morphologies of AGN hosts to a carefully matched control sample
and particularly study the role of AGN luminosity. We find no enhanced merger
rates in AGN hosts and also find no trend for stronger signs of disturbance at
higher AGN luminosities. While this study does not cover very high luminosity
AGN, we can exclude a strong connection between AGN and mergers over a wide
range of AGN luminosities and therefore for a large part of the AGN population.
