The nature of obscuration in AGN: II. insights from clustering
  properties
  Based on large optical and mid-infrared (IR) surveys, we investigate the
relation between nuclear activity in local Seyfert 2 galaxies and galaxy
interactions using a statistical neighbour counting technique. At the same
level of host galaxy star formation (SF), we find that active galactic nuclei
(AGNs) with stronger [OIII] emission lines do not show an excess of near
neighbours, while AGNs with stronger mid-IR emission do have more near
neighbours within a projected distance of 100 kpc. The excess neighbour count
increases with decreasing projected radius. These results suggest a phase of
torus formation during galaxy interactions.
