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Observational studies are increasingly finding evidence against major mergersbeing the dominant mechanism responsible for triggering AGN. After studying theconnection between major mergers and AGN with the highest Eddington ratios atz=2, we here expand our analysis to z<0.2, exploring the same AGN parameterspace. Using ESO VLT/FORS2 B-, V- and color images, we examine the morphologiesof 17 galaxies hosting AGNs with Eddington ratios >0.3, and 25 mass- andredshift-matched control galaxies. To match the appearance of the two samples,we add synthetic point sources to the inactive comparison galaxies. Thecombined sample of AGN and inactive galaxies was independently ranked by 19experts with respect to the degree of morphological distortion. We combine theresulting individual rankings into multiple overall rankings, from which wederive the respective major merger fractions of the two samples. With a bestestimate of 0.41 $\pm$ 0.12 for the AGN host galaxies and 0.08 $\pm$ 0.06 forthe inactive galaxies our results imply that our AGN host galaxies have asignificantly higher merger rate, regardless of the observed wavelength orapplied methodology. We conclude that although major mergers are an essentialmechanism to trigger local high Eddington ratio AGNs at z<0.2, the origin of>=50% of this specific AGN subpopulation still remains unclear.

A significant excess in major merger rate for AGNs with the highest Eddington ratios at z<0.2