Kavli Affiliate: Xian Chen
| First 5 Authors: Liang-Gui Zhu, Xian Chen, , ,
| Summary:
The formation channels of the gravitational-wave (GW) sources detected by
LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA (LVK) remain poorly constrained. Active galactic nucleus (AGN)
has been proposed as one of the potential hosts but the fraction of GW events
originating from AGNs has not been quantified. Here, we constrain the
AGN-origin fraction $f_{rm agn}$ by analyzing the spatial correlation between
GW source localizations ($O1!-!O4$a) and AGN distributions (SDSS DR16). We
find evidence of an excess of low-luminosity ($L_{rm bol} le
10^{45}~!mathrm{erg~s}^{-1}$) as well as low-Eddington ratio ($lambda_{rm
Edd} le 0.05$) AGNs around the LVK events, the explanation of which requires
$f_{rm agn} = 0.39^{+0.41}_{-0.32}$ and $0.29^{+0.40}_{-0.25}$ (90%
confidence level) of the LVK events originating from these respective AGN
populations. Monte Carlo simulations confirm that this correlation is unlikely
to arise from random coincidence, further supported by anomalous variation of
the error of $f_{rm agn}$ with GW event counts. These results provide the
first observational evidence for GW sources coming from either low-luminosity
or low-accretion-rate AGNs, offering critical insights into the environmental
dependencies of the formation of GW sources.
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