SIMBAD references

We investigate the effect of environment on the presence and fuelling of active galactic nuclei (AGN) by identifying galaxies hosting AGN in massive galaxy clusters and the fields around them. We have identified AGN candidates via optical variability (178), X-ray emission (74), and mid-IR SEDs (64) in multi-wavelength surveys covering regions centred on 12 galaxy clusters at redshifts 0.5 < z < 0.9. In this paper, we present the radial distribution of AGN in clusters to examine how local environment affects the presence of an AGN and its host galaxy. While distributions vary from cluster to cluster, we find that the radial distribution of AGN generally differs from that of normal galaxies. X-ray-selected AGN candidates appear to be more centrally concentrated than normal galaxies in the inner 20 percent of the virial radius, while becoming less centrally concentrated in the outer regions. Mid-IR-selected AGN are less centrally concentrated overall. Optical variables have a similar distribution to normal galaxies in the inner regions, then become somewhat less centrally concentrated farther from the cluster centre. The host galaxies of AGN reveal a different colour distribution than normal galaxies, with many AGN hosts displaying galaxy colours in the `green valley' between the red sequence and blue star-forming normal galaxies. This result is similar to those found in field galaxy studies. The colour distribution of AGN hosts is more pronounced in disturbed clusters where minor mergers, galaxy harassment, and interactions with cluster substructure may continue to prompt star formation in the hosts. Among normal galaxies, we find that galaxy colours become generally bluer with increasing cluster radius, as is expected. However, we find no relationship between host galaxy colour and cluster radius among AGN hosts, which may indicate that processes related to the accreting supermassive black hole have a greater impact on the star-forming properties of the host galaxy than does the intracluster medium and/or local galaxy environment.