Halo occupation distributions of moderate X-ray AGNS formed through major and minor mergers in A Λ-CDM Cosmology

Motivated by the shape of the halo occupation distribution (HOD) of X-ray selected AGNs in the COSMOS field recently inferred by Allevato et al., we investigated the HOD properties of moderate X-ray luminosity active galactic nuclei (mXAGNs) using a simple model based on the merging activity between dark matter halos (DMHs) in a Lambda CDM cosmology. The HODs and number densities of the simulated mXAGNs at z = 0.5, under the above scenarios were compared with the results of Allevato et al. We found that the simulated HODs of major and minor mergers, and the observed HODs of mXAGNs are consistent. Our main result is that minor mergers, contrary to what one might expect, can play an important role in the activity of mAGNs.