Characterizing the Intrinsic Absorption Along the Merger Sequence with XMM-Newto

Interactions between galaxies are predicted to cause gas inflows that canpotentially trigger nuclear activity. Since the inflowing material can obscurethe central regions of interacting galaxies, a potential limitation of previousoptical studies is that obscured AGNs can be missed at various stages along themerger sequence. In a recent large MIR study of AGNs in mergers, we demonstratedthat the fraction of obscured AGNs increases with merger stage relative to awelldefined control sample, with the most energetically dominant opticallyobscured AGNs becoming more prevalent in the most advanced mergers. We proposeto observe with XMM all MIRselected AGNs in advanced mergers from our sample toquantify the intrinsic absorption along the merger sequence. truncated!, Please see actual data for full text [truncated!, Please see actual data for full text]