The ionisation cones of NGC\,5728 have a deficit of molecular gas based on millimetre observations of CO\,(2-1) emission. Although photoionisation from the active nucleus may lead to suppression of ...this transition, warm molecular gas can still be present. We report the detection of eight mid-infrared rotational H$_2$ lines throughout the central kiloparsec, including the ionisation cones, using integral field spectroscopic observations with JWST/MIRI MRS. The H$_2$ line ratios, characteristic of a power-law temperature distribution, indicate that the gas is warmest where it enters the ionisation cone through disk rotation, suggestive of shock excitation. In the nucleus, where the data can be combined with an additional seven ro-vibrational H$_2$ transitions, we find that moderate velocity (30 km $) shocks in dense ($10^5$ cm$^ $) gas, irradiated by an external UV field ($G_0 = 10^3$), do provide a good match to the full set. The warm molecular gas in the ionisation cone that is traced by the H$_2$ rotational lines has been heated to temperatures $>200$ K. Outside of the ionisation cone the molecular gas kinematics are undisturbed. However, within the ionisation cone, the kinematics are substantially perturbed, indicative of a radial flow, but one that is quantitatively different from the ionised lines. We argue that this outflow is in the plane of the disk, implying a short 50 pc acceleration zone up to speeds of about 400 km s$^ $ followed by an extended deceleration over sim 700 pc where it terminates. The deceleration is due to both the radially increasing galaxy mass, and mass-loading as ambient gas in the disk is swept up.
Here we show that in the case when double-peaked emission lines originate from outer parts of the accretion disk, their variability could be caused by perturbations in the disk emissivity. In order ...to test this hypothesis, we introduced a model of the disk perturbing region in the form of a single bright spot (or flare) by a modification of the power-law disk emissivity in an appropriate way. The disk emission was then analyzed using numerical simulations based on the ray-tracing method in the Kerr metric and the corresponding simulated line profiles were obtained. We applied this model to the observed H{beta} line profiles of 3C 390.3 (observed in the period 1995-1999) and estimated the parameters of both the accretion disk and the perturbing region. Our results show that two large amplitude outbursts of the H{beta} line observed in 3C 390.3 could be explained by successive occurrences of two bright spots on the approaching side of the disk. These bright spots are either moving, originating in the inner regions of the disk and spiralling outward by crossing small distances during the period of several years, or stationary. In both cases, their widths increase with time, indicating that they most likely decay.
The authors study the photocenter position variability caused by variations in the quasar inner structure. They consider the variability in the accretion disk emissivity and torus structure ...variability caused by the different illumination by the central source. They use models of a relativistic disk, including the perturbation that can increase the brightness of part of the disk, and consequently offset the photocenter position, and a dusty torus that absorbs and re-emits the incoming radiation from the accretion disk. They estimate the value of the photocenter offset caused by these two effects. They found that perturbations in the inner structure can cause a significant offset to the photocenter. This offset depends on the characteristics of both the perturbation and accretion disk and on the structure of the torus. In the case of the two considered QSOs, the observed photocenter offsets cannot be explained by variations in the accretion disk and other effects should be considered.
Hot dust-obscured galaxies (hot DOGs), selected from Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer's all-sky infrared survey, host some of the most powerful active galactic nuclei known and may represent an ...important stage in the evolution of galaxies. Most known hot DOGs are located at z > 1.5, due in part to a strong bias against identifying them at lower redshift related to the selection criteria. We present a new selection method that identifies 153 hot DOG candidates at z approx. 1, where they are significantly brighter and easier to study. We validate this approach by measuring a redshift z = 1.009 and finding a spectral energy distribution similar to that of higher-redshift hot DOGs for one of these objects, WISE J1036+0449 (L(BOL) approx. = 8 x 10(exp 46) erg/s). We find evidence of a broadened component in Mg II, which would imply a black hole mass of M(BH) approx. = 2 x 10(exp 8) Stellar Mass and an Eddington ratio of lambda(Edd) approx. = 2.7. WISE J1036+0449 is the first hot DOG detected by the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, and observations show that the source is heavily obscured, with a column density of N(H) approx. = (2-15) x 10(exp 23)/sq cm. The source has an intrinsic 2-10 keV luminosity of approx. 6 x 10(exp 44) erg/s, a value significantly lower than that expected from the mid-infrared X-ray correlation. We also find that other hot DOGs observed by X-ray facilities show a similar deficiency of X-ray flux. We discuss the origin of the X-ray weakness and the absorption properties of hot DOGs. Hot DOGs at z < or approx. 1 could be excellent laboratories to probe the characteristics of the accretion flow and of the X-ray emitting plasma at extreme values of the Eddington ratio.
If the existence of an obscuring circumnuclear region around the innermost regions of active galactic nuclei (AGN) has been observationally proven, its geometry remains highly uncertain. The ...morphology usually adopted for this region is a toroidal structure, but other alternatives, such as flared disks, can be a good representative of equatorial outflows. Those two geometries usually provide very similar spectroscopic signatures, even when they are modeled under the assumption of fragmentation. In this lecture note, we show that the resulting polarization signatures of the two models, either a torus or a flared disk, are quite different from each other. We use a radiative transfer code that computes the 2000 - 8000 angstrom polarization of the two morphologies in a clumpy environment, and show that varying the sizes of a toroidal region has deep impacts onto the resulting polarization, while the polarization of flared disks is independent of the outer radius. Clumpy flared disks also produce higher polarization degrees (about 10 % at best) together with highly variable polarization position angles.
We present the ionised gas outflow morphology in the Circinus galaxy using the Narrow Field Mode (NFM) of the MUSE instrument on board the Very Large Telescope (VLT). The NFM observations provide a ...spatial resolution of \(\sim\)0.1", corresponding to a physical scale of \(\sim\)2 pc, one of the highest spatial resolution achievable using ground-based AO-assisted observations in the optical wavelengths. The MUSE observations reveal a collimated clumpy outflow profile originating near the AGN location and extending up to 1.5" (\(\sim\)30 pc) in the NW direction. The collimated structure then fragments into two filaments, giving the entire outflowing gas a ``tuning-fork'' morphology. These structures remain undetected in the lower spatial resolution MUSE Wide Field Mode data. We explain the origin of this tuning-fork structure to the interaction of the outflow with a dense clump in the interstellar medium (ISM) as the outflow propagates outward. The origin of the collimated structure itself could be from jet-ISM interactions on small scales. These observations also provide evidence to the origin of the ionised gas filaments previously observed in the Circinus galaxy out to kiloparsec scales. We find instantaneous and time-averaged mass outflow rates of 10\(^{-2}\) M\(_{\odot}\) yr\(^{-1}\) and 10\(^{-4}\) M\(_{\odot}\) yr\(^{-1}\), respectively. Based on the star formation rate in the Circinus galaxy reported in the literature, the observed ionised outflows are not expected to regulate star formation within the \(\sim\)100 pc scales probed by the NFM data.
We present new frontiers in the modelling of the spectral energy distributions (SED) of active galaxies by introducing the radio-to-X-ray fitting capabilities of the publicly available Bayesian code ...AGNfitter. The new code release, called AGNfitter-rx, models the broad-band photometry covering the radio, infrared (IR), optical, ultraviolet (UV) and X-ray bands consistently, using a combination of theoretical and semi-empirical models of the AGN and host galaxy emission. This framework enables the detailed characterization of four physical components of the active nuclei: the accretion disk, the hot dusty torus, the relativistic jets/core radio emission, and the hot corona; alongside modeling three components within the host galaxy: stellar populations, cold dust, and the radio emission from the star-forming regions. Applying AGNfitter-rx to a diverse sample of 36 AGN SEDs at z<0.7 from the AGN SED ATLAS, we investigate and compare the performance of state-of-the-art torus and accretion disk emission models on fit quality and inferred physical parameters. We find that clumpy torus models that include polar winds and semi-empirical accretion disk templates including emission line features significantly increase the fit quality in 67% of the sources, by effectively reducing by \(2\sigma\) fit residuals in the \(1.5-5 \mu \rm m\) and \(0.7 \mu \rm m\) regimes.We demonstrate that, by applying AGNfitter-rx on photometric data, we are able to estimate inclination and opening angles of the torus, consistent with spectroscopic classifications within the AGN unified model, as well as black hole mass estimates in agreement with virial estimates based on H\(\alpha\). The wavelength coverage and the flexibility for the inclusion of state-of-the-art theoretical models make AGNfitter-rx a unique tool for the further development of SED modelling for AGNs in present and future radio-to-X-ray galaxy surveys.
We present observations of the type-2 Seyfert NGC7172 obtained with the medium-resolution spectrometer (MRS) of the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) on board of the JWST. This galaxy hosts one of the ...lowest ionised gas mass outflow rates (Mout~0.005 M/yr) in a sample of six AGN with similar bolometric luminosities (log Lbol~44erg/s) within the Galactic Activity, Torus and Outflow Survey (GATOS). We aim to understand the properties of the ionised gas outflow, mainly using the emission lines from the neon transitions, that cover a broad range of ionisation potentials (IP) from ~20 eV to ~130 eV. We applied parametric and non-parametric methods to characterise the line emission and kinematics. The low excitation lines (IP<25eV, e.g.NeII) trace the rotating disc emission. The high excitation lines (IP>90eV, e.g.NeV), which are likely photoionised exclusively by the AGN, are expanding in the direction nearly perpendicular to the disc of the galaxy, with maximum projected velocities of ~350-500 km/s. In particular, NeV and NeVI lines reveal a biconical ionised gas outflow emerging N-S from the nuclear region, extending at least ~2.5"N and 3.8"S (projected distance of ~450 and 680 pc). Most of the emission arising in the northern part of the cone was not previously detected due to obscuration. Given the almost face-on orientation of the outflow and the almost edge-on orientation of the galaxy, NGC7172 may be a case of weak coupling. Nevertheless, we found evidence for positive feedback in two distinct outflowing clumps at projected distances of 3.1" and 4.3" (i.e. ~560 and 780 pc) SW from the AGN. We estimated a star formation rate in these regions using the NeII and NeIII luminosities of 0.08 M/yr, that is ~10% of that found in the circumnuclear ring. The star formation activity might have been triggered by the interaction between the ionised gas outflow and the ISM of the galaxy.
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