scholarly journals The Galactic center: not an active galactic nucleus

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (S303) ◽  
pp. 54-58
Author(s):  
Deokkeun An ◽  
Solange V. Ramírez ◽  
Kris Sellgren

AbstractWe present 10 μm – 35μm Spitzer spectra of the interstellar medium in the central molecular zone (CMZ), the central 210 pc × 60 pc of the Galactic center (GC). We present maps of the CMZ in ionic and H2 emission, covering a more extensive area than earlier spectroscopic surveys in this region. We compare diagnostic line ratios measured in the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey to our data. Previous work shows that forbidden line ratios can distinguish star-forming galaxies from low-ionization nuclear emission-line regions (LINERs) and active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Our GC line ratios agree with star-forming galaxies and not with LINERs or AGNs.

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (S352) ◽  
pp. 121-122
Author(s):  
A. Plat ◽  
S. Charlot ◽  
G. Bruzual ◽  
A. Feltre ◽  
A. Vidal-Garca ◽  
...  

AbstractTo understand how the nature of the ionizing sources and the leakage of ionizing photons in high-redshift galaxies can be constrained from their emission-line spectra, we compare emission-line models of star-forming galaxies including leakage of ionizing radiation, active galactic nuclei (AGN) and radiative shocks, with observations of galaxies at various redshifts with properties expected to approach those of primeval galaxies.


2013 ◽  
Vol 430 (3) ◽  
pp. 2002-2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Riffel ◽  
A. Rodríguez-Ardila ◽  
I. Aleman ◽  
M. S. Brotherton ◽  
M. G. Pastoriza ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 498 (3) ◽  
pp. 3985-3994
Author(s):  
Xiaoling Yu ◽  
Yong Shi ◽  
Yanmei Chen ◽  
Jianhang Chen ◽  
Songlin Li ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Changing-look active galactic nuclei (CL-AGNs) are a subset of AGNs in which the broad Balmer emission lines appear or disappear within a few years. We use the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey to identify five CL-AGNs. The 2D photometric and kinematic maps reveal common features as well as some unusual properties of CL-AGN hosts as compared to the AGN hosts in general. All MaNGA CL-AGNs reside in the star-forming main sequence, similar to MaNGA non-changing-look AGNs (NCL-AGNs). The $80 \pm 16{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of our CL-AGNs do possess pseudo-bulge features, and follow the overall NCL-AGN MBH–σ* relationship. The kinematic measurements indicate that they have similar distributions in the plane of angular momentum versus galaxy ellipticity. MaNGA CL-AGNs, however, show a higher, but not statistically significant ($20 \pm 16{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$) fraction of counter-rotating features compared to that ($1.84 \pm 0.61{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$) in general star formation population. In addition, MaNGA CL-AGNs favour more face-on (axial ratio > 0.7) than that of type I NCL-AGNs. These results suggest that host galaxies could play a role in the CL-AGN phenomenon.


1997 ◽  
Vol 159 ◽  
pp. 280-287
Author(s):  
A. Robinson

AbstractHigh-excitation extended emission-line nebulae around active galactic nuclei probably result either from photoionization of the interstellar medium by beamed continuum radiation, or dynamical interactions between radio sources and the ambient gas, or both. Here I discuss the models based on these mechanisms, and their relative importance in radio-quiet and radio-loud active galaxies.


2020 ◽  
Vol 492 (4) ◽  
pp. 4680-4696 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominika Wylezalek ◽  
Anthony M Flores ◽  
Nadia L Zakamska ◽  
Jenny E Greene ◽  
Rogemar A Riffel

ABSTRACT The prevalence of outflow and feedback signatures in active galactic nuclei (AGNs is a major unresolved question which large integral field unit (IFU) surveys now allow to address. In this paper, we present a kinematic analysis of the ionized gas in 2778 galaxies at z ∼ 0.05 observed by Sloan Digital Sky Survey-IV (SDSS-IV) Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA). Specifically, we measure the kinematics of the [O iii] λ5007 Å emission line in each spatial element and fit multiple Gaussian components to account for possible non-gravitational motions of gas. Comparing the kinematics of the ionized gas between 308 MaNGA-selected AGNs that have been previously identified through emission-line diagnostics and sources not classified as AGN, we find that while 25 per cent of MaNGA-selected AGN show [O iii] components with emission-line widths of >500 km s−1 in more than 10 per cent of their spaxels, only 7 per cent of MaNGA non-AGNs show a similar signature. Even the AGNs that do not show nuclear AGN photoionization signatures and that were only identified as AGN based on their larger scale photoionization signatures show similar kinematic characteristics. In addition to obscuration, another possibility is that outflow and mechanical feedback signatures are longer lived than the AGN itself. Our measurements demonstrate that high velocity gas is more prevalent in AGN compared to non-AGN and that outflow and feedback signatures in low-luminosity, low-redshift AGN may so far have been underestimated. We show that higher luminosity MaNGA-selected AGNs are able to drive larger scale outflows than lower luminosity AGN. But estimates of the kinetic coupling efficiencies are ≪1 per cent and suggest that the feedback signatures probed in this paper are unlikely to have a significant impact on the AGN host galaxies. However, continuous energy injection may still heat a fraction of the cool gas and delay or suppress star formation in individual galaxies even when the AGN is weak.


2019 ◽  
Vol 489 (2) ◽  
pp. 2652-2668 ◽  
Author(s):  
E Pérez-Montero ◽  
O L Dors ◽  
J M Vílchez ◽  
R García-Benito ◽  
M V Cardaci ◽  
...  

Abstract We present a new methodology for the analysis of the emission lines of the interstellar medium in the narrow-line regions around type-2 active galactic nuclei. Our aim is to provide a recipe that can be used for large samples of objects in a consistent way using different sets of optical emission lines that takes into the account possible variations from the O/H–N/O relation to use [N ii] lines. Our approach consists of a bayesian-like comparison between certain observed emission-line ratios sensitive to total oxygen abundance, nitrogen-to-oxygen ratio, and ionization parameter with the predictions from a large grid of photoionization models calculated under the most usual conditions in this environment. We applied our method to a sample of Seyfert 2 galaxies with optical emission-line fluxes and determinations of their chemical properties from detailed models in the literature. Our results agree within the errors with other results and confirm the high metallicity of the objects of the sample, with N/O values consistent with a large secondary production of N, but with a large dispersion. The obtained ionization parameters for this sample are much larger than those for star-forming object at the same metallicity.


2020 ◽  
Vol 499 (4) ◽  
pp. 5749-5764 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xihan Ji ◽  
Renbin Yan

ABSTRACT Optical diagnostic diagrams are powerful tools to separate different ionizing sources in galaxies. However, the model-constraining power of the most widely used diagrams is very limited and challenging to visualize. In addition, there have always been classification inconsistencies between diagrams based on different line ratios, and ambiguities between regions purely ionized by active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and composite regions. We present a simple reprojection of the 3D line ratio space composed of [N ii]λ6583/H α, [S ii]λλ6716, 6731/H α, and [O iii]λ5007/H β, which reveals its model-constraining power and removes the ambiguity for the true composite objects. It highlights the discrepancy between many theoretical models and the data loci. With this reprojection, we can put strong constraints on the photoionization models and the secondary nitrogen abundance prescription. We find that a single nitrogen prescription cannot fit both the star-forming locus and AGN locus simultaneously, with the latter requiring higher N/O ratios. The true composite regions stand separately from both models. We can compute the fractional AGN contributions for the composite regions, and define demarcations with specific upper limits on contamination from AGN or star formation. When the discrepancy about nitrogen prescriptions gets resolved in the future, it would also be possible to make robust metallicity measurements for composite regions and AGNs.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (S359) ◽  
pp. 347-349
Author(s):  
Carpes P. Hekatelyne ◽  
Thaisa Storchi-Bergmann

AbstractWe present Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) Integral Field Unit (IFU), Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and Very Large Array (VLA) observations of the inner kpc of the OH Megamaser galaxy IRAS 11506-3851. In this work we discuss the kinematics and excitation of the gas as well as its radio emission. The HST images reveal an isolated spiral galaxy and the combination with the GMOS-IFU flux distributions allowed us to identify a partial ring of star-forming regions surrounding the nucleus with a radius of ≍500 pc. The emission-line ratios and excitation map reveal that the region inside the ring present mixed/transition excitation between those of Starbursts and Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), while regions along the ring are excited by Starbursts. We suggest that we are probing a buried or fading AGN that could be both exciting the gas and originating an outflow.


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