Offset Active Galactic Nuclei as Tracers of Galaxy Mergers and
  Supermassive Black Hole Growth
  Offset active galactic nuclei (AGNs) are AGNs that are in ongoing galaxy
mergers, which produce kinematic offsets in the AGNs relative to their host
galaxies. Offset AGNs are also close relatives of dual AGNs. We conduct a
systematic search for offset AGNs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, by selecting
AGN emission lines that exhibit statistically significant line-of-sight
velocity offsets relative to systemic. From a parent sample of 18314 Type 2
AGNs at z<0.21, we identify 351 offset AGN candidates with velocity offsets of
50 km/s < |v| < 410 km/s. When we account for projection effects in the
observed velocities, we estimate that 4% - 8% of AGNs are offset AGNs. We
designed our selection criteria to bypass velocity offsets produced by rotating
gas disks, AGN outflows, and gravitational recoil of supermassive black holes,
but follow-up observations are still required to confirm our candidates as
offset AGNs. We find that the fraction of AGNs that are offset candidates
increases with AGN bolometric luminosity, from 0.7% to 6% over the luminosity
range 43 < log(L_bol) [erg/s] < 46. If these candidates are shown to be bona
fide offset AGNs, then this would be direct observational evidence that galaxy
mergers preferentially trigger high-luminosity AGNs. Finally, we find that the
fraction of AGNs that are offset AGN candidates increases from 1.9% at z=0.1 to
32% at z=0.7, in step with the growth in the galaxy merger fraction over the
same redshift range.
