scholarly journals A mid-infrared exploration of the dusty environments of active galactic nuclei

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (S304) ◽  
pp. 44-47
Author(s):  
Almudena Alonso-Herrero
Keyword(s):  
Active Galactic Nuclei ◽  
Galactic Nuclei ◽  
Mid Infrared ◽  
Full Sample ◽  
Star Formation Activity ◽  
First Results ◽  
Dusty Torus ◽  
Infrared Survey

AbstractWe present the first results from a mid-infrared survey of local Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) using the CanariCam (CC) instrument on the 10.4 m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC). We are obtaining sub-arcsecond angular resolution (0.3 − 0.6 arcsec) mid-IR imaging and spectroscopic observations of a sample of 100 local AGN, which are complemented with data taken with T-ReCS, VISIR, and Michelle. The full sample contains approximately 140 AGN, covers nearly six orders of magnitude in AGN luminosity, and includes low-luminosity AGN (LLAGN), Seyfert 1s and 2s, QSO, radio galaxies, and (U)LIRGs. The main goals of this project are: (1) to test whether the properties of the dusty tori of the AGN Unified Model depend on the AGN type, (2) to study the nuclear star formation activity and obscuration of local AGN, and (3) to explore the role of the dusty torus in LLAGN.

scholarly journals Local AGN survey (LASr): I. Galaxy sample, infrared colour selection, and predictions for AGN within 100 Mpc

2020 ◽  
Vol 494 (2) ◽  
pp. 1784-1816
Author(s):  
D Asmus ◽  
C L Greenwell ◽  
P Gandhi ◽  
P G Boorman ◽  
J Aird ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Active Galactic Nuclei ◽  
Galaxy Evolution ◽  
Galactic Nuclei ◽  
Wide Field ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Sky Survey ◽  
Galaxy Sample ◽  
Redshift Survey ◽  
Infrared Survey

ABSTRACT To answer major questions on supermassive black hole (SMBH) and galaxy evolution, a complete census of SMBH growth, i.e. active galactic nuclei (AGN), is required. Thanks to all-sky surveys by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and the Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma (SRG) missions, this task is now feasible in the nearby Universe. We present a new survey, the Local AGN Survey (LASr), with the goal of identifying AGN unbiased against obscuration and determining the intrinsic Compton-thick (CT) fraction. We construct the most complete all-sky galaxy sample within 100 Mpc ($90{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ completeness for log (M*/M⊙) ∼ 9.4), four times deeper than the current reference, the Two Micron All-Sky Survey Redshift Survey (2MRS), which misses ${\sim}20{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of known luminous AGN. These 49k galaxies serve as parent sample for LASr, called LASr-GPS. It contains 4.3k already known AGN, $\ge 82{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of these are estimated to have $L^\mathrm{nuc}(12\, \mu \mathrm{m})\lt 10^{42.3}$ erg s−1, i.e. are low-luminosity AGN. As a first method for identifying Seyfert-like AGN, we use WISE-based infrared colours, finding 221 galaxies at $L^\mathrm{nuc}(12\, \mu \mathrm{m})\ge 10^{42.3}$ erg s−1 to host an AGN at $90{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ reliability. This includes 61 new AGN candidates and implies an optical type 2 fraction of 50–71 per cent. We quantify the efficiency of this technique and estimate the total number of AGN with $L^\mathrm{int}(\rm {2-10\,keV})\ge 10^{42}$ erg s−1 in the volume to be $362^{+145}_{-116}$ ($8.6^{+3.5}_{-2.8}\, \times$ 10−5 Mpc−3). X-ray brightness estimates indicate the CT fraction to be 40–55 per cent to explain the Swift non-detections of the infrared selected objects. One third of the AGN within 100 Mpc remain to be identified, and we discuss the prospects for the eROSITA all-sky survey to detect them.

scholarly journals AGN types and unification model

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (S356) ◽  
pp. 29-43
Author(s):  
Luigi Spinoglio ◽  
Juan Antonio Fernández-Ontiveros
Keyword(s):  
Active Galactic Nuclei ◽  
Galactic Nuclei ◽  
Seyfert Galaxies ◽  
Physical Object ◽  
Host Galaxy ◽  
Star Forming ◽  
Star Formation Activity ◽  
Frequency Monitoring

AbstractThe motivation of the “unified model” is to explain the main properties of the large zoo of active galactic nuclei with a single physical object. The discovery of broad permitted lines in the polarized spectrum of type 2 Seyfert galaxies in the mid 80’s led to the idea of an obscuring torus, whose orientation with respect to our line of sight was the reason of the different optical spectra. However, after many years of observations with different techniques, including IR and mm interferometry, the resulting properties of the observed dust structures differ from the torus model that would be needed to explain the type 1 vs type 2 dichotomy. Moreover, in the last years, multi-frequency monitoring of active galactic nuclei has shown an increasing number of transitions from one type to the other one, which cannot be explained in terms of the simple orientation of the dusty structure surrounding the active galactic nucleus (AGN). The interrelations between the AGN and the host galaxy, as also shown in the Magorrian relation, suggest that the evolution of the host galaxy may also have an important role in the observed manifestation of the nuclei. As an example, the observed delay between the maximum star formation activity and the onset of the AGN activity, and the higher occurrence of type 2 nuclei in star forming galaxies, have suggested the possible evolutionary path from, e.g., H II → AGN2 → AGN1. In the next years the models of unification need to also consider this observational framework and not only simple orientation effects.

scholarly journals MID-INFRARED SELECTION OF ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI WITH THEWIDE-FIELD INFRARED SURVEY EXPLORER. I. CHARACTERIZINGWISE-SELECTED ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI IN COSMOS

2012 ◽  
Vol 753 (1) ◽  
pp. 30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Stern ◽  
Roberto J. Assef ◽  
Dominic J. Benford ◽  
Andrew Blain ◽  
Roc Cutri ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Active Galactic Nuclei ◽  
Galactic Nuclei ◽  
Mid Infrared ◽  
Infrared Survey ◽  
Selection Of

scholarly journals Towards a new paradigm of dust structure in AGN: Dissecting the mid-IR emission of Circinus galaxy

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (S356) ◽  
pp. 50-55
Author(s):  
Marko Stalevski ◽  
Daniel Asmus ◽  
Konrad R. W. Tristram
Keyword(s):  
Active Galactic Nuclei ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Dust Emission ◽  
Galactic Nuclei ◽  
Polar Regions ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
Mid Infrared ◽  
Small Scales ◽  
Ir Emission ◽  
Dusty Torus

AbstractRecent mid-infrared (MIR) observations of nearby active galactic nuclei (AGN), revealed that their dust emission appears prominently extended in the polar direction, at odds with the expectations from the canonical dusty torus. This polar dust, tentatively associated with dusty winds driven by radiation pressure, is found to have a major contribution to the MIR flux from a few to hundreds of parsecs. One such source with a clear detection of polar dust is a nearby, well-known AGN in the Circinus galaxy. We proposed a phenomenological model consisting of a compact, thin dusty disk and a large-scale polar outflow in the form of a hyperboloid shell and demonstrated that such a model is able to explain the peculiar MIR morphology on large scales seen by VLT/VISIR and the interferometric data from VLTI/MIDI that probe the small scales. Our results call for caution when attributing dust emission of unresolved sources entirely to the torus and warrant further investigation of the MIR emission in the polar regions of AGN.

Role of environment on AGN activity

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (S356) ◽  
pp. 171-171
Author(s):  
Amirnezam Amiri
Keyword(s):  
Star Formation ◽  
Active Galactic Nuclei ◽  
Galaxy Clusters ◽  
Galactic Nuclei ◽  
Stellar Mass ◽  
Local Universe ◽  
Nuclear Activity ◽  
Star Forming ◽  
Star Formation Activity

AbstractMotivated by the apparently conflicting results reported in the literature on the effect of environment on nuclear activity, we have carried out a new analysis by comparing the fraction of galaxies hosting active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in the most overdense regions (rich galaxy clusters) and the most underdense ones (voids) in the local universe. Exploiting the classical BPT diagnostics, we have extracted volume limited samples of star forming and AGN galaxies. We find that, at variance with star-forming galaxies, AGN galaxies have similar distributions of specific star formation rates and of galactic ages (as indicated by the Dn4000 parameter) both in clusters and in voids. In both environments galaxies hosting AGNs are generally old, with low star formation activity. The AGN fraction increases faster with stellar mass in clusters than in voids, especially above 1010.2 M⊙. Our results indicate that, in the local universe, the nuclear activity correlates with stellar mass and galaxy morphology and is weakly, if at all, affected by the local galaxy density.

scholarly journals The Mid-Infrared Spectral Properties of Starburst Galaxies and Active Galactic Nuclei

1999 ◽  
Vol 194 ◽  
pp. 54-59
Author(s):  
O. Laurent ◽  
I.F. Mirabel
Keyword(s):  
Star Formation ◽  
Active Galactic Nuclei ◽  
Infrared Spectra ◽  
Diagnostic Tool ◽  
Active Galactic Nucleus ◽  
Spectral Properties ◽  
Galactic Nuclei ◽  
Mid Infrared ◽  
Star Formation Activity ◽  
Infrared Spectral

We present a new diagnostic tool based on mid-infrared spectra (5–16μm) for distinguishing the emission triggered by the active galactic nucleus (AGN) and by the star formation activity. We show that the AGN spectra, contrary to the starburst spectra, present an important continuum below 9μm and an absence of Unidentified Infrared Bands (UIBs).

scholarly journals Understanding the origin of radio outflows in Seyfert galaxies using radio polarimetry

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (S356) ◽  
pp. 247-251
Author(s):  
Biny Sebastian ◽  
Preeti Kharb ◽  
Christopher P. O’ Dea ◽  
Jack F. Gallimore ◽  
Stefi A. Baum ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Fields ◽  
Radio Emission ◽  
Active Galactic Nuclei ◽  
Galactic Nuclei ◽  
Seyfert Galaxy ◽  
Seyfert Galaxies ◽  
Starburst Galaxies ◽  
Galactic Magnetic Fields ◽  
5 Ghz

AbstractThe role of starburst winds versus active galactic nuclei (AGN) jets/winds in the formation of the kiloparsec scale radio emission seen in Seyferts is not yet well understood. In order to be able to disentangle the role of various components, we have observed a sample of Seyfert galaxies exhibiting kpc-scale radio emission suggesting outflows, along with a comparison sample of starburst galaxies, with the EVLA B-array in polarimetric mode at 1.4 GHz and 5 GHz. The Seyfert galaxy NGC 2639, shows highly polarized secondary radio lobes, not observed before, which are aligned perpendicular to the known pair of radio lobes. The additional pair of lobes represent an older epoch of emission. A multi-epoch multi-frequency study of the starburst-Seyfert composite galaxy NGC 3079, reveals that the jet together with the starburst superwind and the galactic magnetic fields might be responsible for the well-known 8-shaped radio lobes observed in this galaxy. We find that many of the Seyfert galaxies in our sample show bubble-shaped lobes, which are absent in the starburst galaxies that do not host an AGN.

scholarly journals Intra-Day Variability Observations of Two Dozens of Blazars at 4.8 GHz

Universe ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Xiang Liu ◽  
Xin Wang ◽  
Ning Chang ◽  
Jun Liu ◽  
Lang Cui ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Active Galactic Nuclei ◽  
Galactic Nuclei ◽  
Forthcoming Paper ◽  
Galactic Latitude ◽  
Local Interstellar Medium ◽  
Bl Lac Objects ◽  
Spectrum Radio ◽  
First Results ◽  
First Time ◽  
Source Structure

Two dozens of radio loud active galactic nuclei (AGNs) have been observed with Urumqi 25 m radio telescope in order to search for intra-day variability (IDV). The target sources are blazars (namely flat spectrum radio quasars and BL Lac objects) which are mostly selected from the observing list of RadioAstron AGN monitoring campaigns. The observations were carried out at 4.8 GHz in two sessions of 8–12 February 2014 and 7–9 March respectively. We report the data reduction and the first results of observations. The results show that the majority of the blazars exhibit IDV in 99.9% confidence level, some of them show quite strong IDV. We find the strong IDV of blazar 1357 + 769 for the first time. The IDV at centimeter-wavelength is believed to be predominately caused by the scintillation of blazar emission through the local interstellar medium in a few hundreds parsecs away from Sun. No significant correlation between the IDV strength and either redshift or Galactic latitude is found in our sample. The IDV timescale along with source structure and brightness temperature analysis will be presented in a forthcoming paper.

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