We use VLTI/GRAVITY near-infrared interferometry measurements of eight bright type 1 AGN to study the size and structure of hot dust that is heated by the central engine. We partially resolve each ...source, and report Gaussian full width at half-maximum sizes in the range 0.3−0.8 mas. In all but one object, we find no evidence for significant elongation or asymmetry (closure phases ≲1°). The narrow range of measured angular sizes is expected given the similar optical flux of our targets, and implies an increasing effective physical radius with bolometric luminosity, as found from previous reverberation and interferometry measurements. The measured sizes for Seyfert galaxies are systematically larger than for the two quasars in our sample when measured relative to the previously reported
R
∼
L
1/2
relationship, which is explained by emission at the sublimation radius. This could be evidence of an evolving near-infrared emission region structure as a function of central luminosity.
Aims.
In this paper we aim to constrain the properties of dust structures in the central first parsecs of active galactic nuclei (AGN). Our goal is to study the required optical depth and composition ...of different dusty and ionised structures.
Methods.
We developed a radiative transfer code called Monte Carlo for Active Galactic Nuclei (MontAGN), which is optimised for polarimetric observations in the infrared. With both this code and STOKES, designed to be relevant from the hard X-ray band to near-infrared wavelengths, we investigate the polarisation emerging from a characteristic model of the AGN environment. For this purpose, we compare predictions of our models with previous infrared observations of NGC 1068, and try to reproduce several key polarisation patterns revealed by polarisation mapping.
Results.
We constrain the required dust structures and their densities. More precisely, we find that the electron density inside the ionisation cone is about 2.0 × 10
9
m
−3
. With structures constituted of spherical grains of constant density, we also highlight that the torus should be thicker than 20 in term of
K
-band optical depth to block direct light from the centre. It should also have a stratification in density: a less dense outer rim with an optical depth at 2.2
μ
m typically between 0.8 and 4 for observing the double scattering effect previously proposed.
Conclusions.
We bring constraints on the dust structures in the inner parsecs of an AGN model supposed to describe NGC 1068. When compared to observations, this leads to an optical depth of at least 20 in the
Ks
band for the torus of NGC 1068, corresponding to
τ
V
≈ 170, which is within the range of current estimation based on observations. In the future, we will improve our study by including non-uniform dust structures and aligned elongated grains to constrain other possible interpretations of the observations.
Context. A new challenging adaptive optics (AO) system, called multi-object adaptive optics (MOAO), has been successfully demonstrated on-sky for the first time at the 4.2 m William Herschel ...Telescope, Canary Islands, Spain, at the end of September 2010. Aims. This system, called CANARY, is aimed at demonstrating the feasibility of MOAO in preparation of a future multi-object near infra-red (IR) integral field unit spectrograph to equip extremely large telescopes for analysing the morphology and dynamics of high-z galaxies. Methods. CANARY compensates for the atmospheric turbulence with a deformable mirror driven in open-loop and controlled through a tomographic reconstruction by three widely separated off-axis natural guide star (NGS) wavefront sensors, which are in open loop too. We compared the performance of conventional closed-loop AO, MOAO, and ground-layer adaptive optics (GLAO) by analysing both IR images and simultaneous wave-front measurements. Results. In H-band, Strehl ratios of 0.20 are measured with MOAO while achieving 0.25 with closed-loop AO in fairly similar seeing conditions (r0 ≈ 15 cm at 0.5 μm). As expected, MOAO has performed at an intermediate level between GLAO and closed-loop AO.
Context. A giant planet was recently discovered around the young star β Pictoris. This planet is the closest to its parent star ever imaged. With an estimated mass of about 9 MJup and separation of ...8–15 AU, it explains most of the peculiarities of β Pictoris and its disk. Aims. Previous detections were made in the L′ band (3.8 μm) and at 4.05 μm. We recorded new Ks-band data (2.18 μm) in order to measure its color and get an additional estimate of its mass and effective temperature Methods. Angular differential Ks-band images of β Pictoris were recorded with NaCo in March and April 2010. Results. The companion is detected at Ks. This independently confirms the physical nature of β Pictoris b inferred from the L′ and NB_4.05 bands. The increase of the projected separation between October–December 2009 and April 2010 observations is consistent within error bars with the expected orbital motion. Using the absolute Ks photometry, “hot start” evolutionary models predict a mass of 7–11 MJup in agreement with previous estimates. Moreover, this mass is compatible with Teff = 1700 ± 300 K derived from the comparison of the Ks − L′ color with those generated using synthetic spectra.
Aims. In this paper we aim to constrain the properties of dust structures in the central first parsecs of active galactic nuclei (AGN). Our goal is to study the required optical depth and composition ...of different dusty and ionised structures. Methods. We developed a radiative transfer code called Monte Carlo for Active Galactic Nuclei (MontAGN), which is optimised for polarimetric observations in the infrared. With both this code and STOKES, designed to be relevant from the hard X-ray band to near-infrared wavelengths, we investigate the polarisation emerging from a characteristic model of the AGN environment. For this purpose, we compare predictions of our models with previous infrared observations of NGC 1068, and try to reproduce several key polarisation patterns revealed by polarisation mapping. Results. We constrain the required dust structures and their densities. More precisely, we find that the electron density inside the ionisation cone is about 2.0 × 109 m−3. With structures constituted of spherical grains of constant density, we also highlight that the torus should be thicker than 20 in term of K-band optical depth to block direct light from the centre. It should also have a stratification in density: a less dense outer rim with an optical depth at 2.2 μm typically between 0.8 and 4 for observing the double scattering effect previously proposed. Conclusions. We bring constraints on the dust structures in the inner parsecs of an AGN model supposed to describe NGC 1068. When compared to observations, this leads to an optical depth of at least 20 in the Ks band for the torus of NGC 1068, corresponding to τV ≈ 170, which is within the range of current estimation based on observations. In the future, we will improve our study by including non-uniform dust structures and aligned elongated grains to constrain other possible interpretations of the observations.
Context. The science case studies and the optimized designing of the future adaptive optics-fed extremely large telescope instruments require the precise simulation of their adaptive optics system, ...potentially over their whole field of view, whatever the adaptive optics flavor the instruments will be equipped with. Aims. We simulate the anisoplanatism effect on the extremely large telescope single conjugate adaptive optics point spread function. Our interest in this expected degradation of the correction performance with respect to the off-axis distance is in terms of the point spread function Strehl ratio and profile. Methods. Adaptive optics simulations at the scale of extremely large telescopes are challenging given the large parameter space to explore for the adaptive optics dimensioning and the large number of degrees of freedom at play for a given set of simulation parameters. To address this problem, we have used three different simulation tools with increasing degree of fidelity compared to a real adaptive optics system. The first is based on analytical formulae and allowed us to derive the Strehl ratio degradation with the off-axis distance. The second is a Fourier-based code and provided us with both the Strehl ratio and the point spread function profile in the field. The last is an end-to-end code based on the graphical processing unit technology and also provided us with the Strehl ratio and the point spread function profile in the field. Results. The three tools we used demonstrated a fast execution time even at the extremely large telescope scale. Cross-checks between the different codes were performed and demonstrated the coherency of the results. In addition to the expected degradation of the adaptive optics performance with the field angle, we demonstrated that in the simulation conditions applicable to the E-ELT, the single conjugate adaptive optics point spread function remains topped with a coherent core even at off-axis distances as large as 60 arcsec and consequently very low Strehl ratios. We also studied the impact of the outer scale on the point spread function profile, demonstrating that the aforementioned Airy-like pattern is observable even when the outer scale is larger than the telescope diameter. Conclusions. These results could push for the preservation over a large field of the optical quality of any common path optics between the telescope and the instruments in single conjugate adaptive optics mode. This could offer some astrometric capabilities to these instruments operating in this adaptive optics mode.
We present recent results from the initial testing of an artificial neural network (ANN)-based tomographic reconstructor Complex Atmospheric Reconstructor based on Machine lEarNing (CARMEN) on ...CANARY, an adaptive optics demonstrator operated on the 4.2 m William Herschel Telescope, La Palma. The reconstructor was compared with contemporaneous data using the Learn and Apply (L&A) tomographic reconstructor. We find that the fully optimized L&A tomographic reconstructor outperforms CARMEN by approximately 5 per cent in Strehl ratio or 15 nm rms in wavefront error. We also present results for CANARY in Ground Layer Adaptive Optics mode to show that the reconstructors are tomographic. The results are comparable and this small deficit is attributed to limitations in the training data used to build the ANN. Laboratory bench tests show that the ANN can outperform L&A under certain conditions, e.g. if the higher layer of a model two layer atmosphere was to change in altitude by ∼300 m (equivalent to a shift of approximately one tenth of a subaperture).
We investigate the improvements in Shack–Hartmann wavefront sensor image processing that can be realized using total variation minimization techniques to remove noise from these images. We perform ...Monte Carlo simulation to demonstrate that at certain signal-to-noise levels, sensitivity improvements of up to one astronomical magnitude can be realized. We also present on-sky measurements taken with the CANARY adaptive optics system that demonstrate an improvement in performance when this technique is employed, and show that this algorithm can be implemented in a real-time control system. We conclude that total variation minimization can lead to improvements in sensitivity of up to one astronomical magnitude when used with adaptive optics systems.
Aims. One of the main observational challenges for investigating the central regions of active galactic nuclei (AGN) at short wavelengths, using high angular resolution, and high contrast ...observations, is to directly detect the circumnuclear optically thick material hiding the central core emission when viewed edge-on. The lack of direct evidence is limiting our understanding of AGN, and several scenarios have been proposed to cope for the diverse observed aspects of activity in a unified approach. Methods. Observations in the near-infrared spectral range have shown themselves to be powerful for providing essential hints to the characterisation of the unified model ingredients because of the reduced optical depth of the obscuring material. Moreover, it is possible to trace this material through light scattered from the central engine’s closest environment, so that polarimetric observations are the ideal tool for distinguishing it from purely thermal and stellar emissions. Results. Here we show strong evidence that there is an extended nuclear torus at the center of NGC 1068 thanks to new adaptive-optics-assisted polarimetric observations in the near-infrared. The orientation of the polarization vectors proves that there is a structured hourglass-shaped bicone and a compact elongated (20 × 60 pc) nuclear structure perpendicular to the bicone axis. The linearly polarized emission in the bicone is dominated by a centro-symmetric pattern, but the central compact region shows a clear deviation from the latter with linear polarization aligned perpendicular to the bicone axis.
We present a detailed analysis of high-resolution near-infrared imaging and spectroscopy of the potential star cluster IRS13E very close to the massive black hole in the Galactic center. We detect 19 ...objects in IRS13E from Ks-band images, 15 of which are also detected reliably in the H band. We derive consistent proper motions for these objects from the two bands. Most objects share a similar westward proper motion. We characterize the objects using spectroscopy (1.45-2.45 mum) and (narrowband) imaging from the H (1.66 mum) to the L' band (3.80 mum). Nine of the objects detected in both the Ks and H bands are very red, and we find that they are all consistent with being warm dust clumps. The dust emission may be caused by the colliding winds of the two Wolf-Rayet stars in the cluster. Three of the six detected stars do not share the motion or spectral properties of the three bright stars. This leaves only the three bright, early-type stars as potential cluster members. It is unlikely that these stars are a chance configuration. Assuming the presence of an intermediate mass black hole (IMBH), a mass of about 14,000 M sun follows from the velocities and positions of these three stars. However, our acceleration limits make such an IMBH nearly as unlikely as a chance occurrence of such a star association. Furthermore, there is no variable X-ray source in IRS13E despite the high density of dust and gas. Therefore, we conclude that is unlikely that IRS13E hosts a black hole massive enough to bind the three stars.
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