11,840 research outputs found
Variability of Fe II Emission Features in the Seyfert 1 Galaxy NGC 5548
We study the low-contrast Fe II emission blends in the ultraviolet
(1250--2200A) and optical (4000--6000A) spectra of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC
5548 and show that these features vary in flux and that these variations are
correlated with those of the optical continuum. The amplitude of variability of
the optical Fe II emission is 50% - 75% that of Hbeta and the ultraviolet Fe II
emission varies with an even larger amplitude than Hbeta. However, accurate
measurement of the flux in these blends proves to be very difficult even using
excellent Fe II templates to fit the spectra. We are able to constrain only
weakly the optical Fe II emission-line response timescale to a value less than
several weeks; this upper limit exceeds all the reliably measured emission-line
lags in this source so it is not particularly meaningful. Nevertheless, the
fact that the optical Fe II and continuum flux variations are correlated
indicates that line fluorescence in a photoionized plasma, rather than
collisional excitation, is responsible for the Fe II emission. The iron
emission templates are available upon request.Comment: 34 pages including 12 figures and 2 tables. Accepted for publication
by ApJ (tentatively in vol. 626 June 10, 2005
On the lack of correlation between Mg II 2796, 2803 Angstrom and Lyman alpha emission in lensed star-forming galaxies
We examine the Mg II 2796, 2803 Angstrom, Lyman alpha, and nebular line
emission in five bright star-forming galaxies at 1.66<z<1.91 that have been
gravitationally lensed by foreground galaxy clusters. All five galaxies show
prominent Mg II emission and absorption in a P Cygni profile. We find no
correlation between the equivalent widths of Mg II and Lyman alpha emission.
The Mg II emission has a broader range of velocities than do the nebular
emission line profiles; the Mg II emission is redshifted with respect to
systemic by 100 to 200 km/s. When present, Lyman alpha is even more redshifted.
The reddest components of Mg II and Lyman alpha emission have tails to 500-600
km/s, implying a strong outflow. The lack of correlation in the Mg II and Lyman
alpha equivalent widths, the differing velocity profiles, and the high ratios
of Mg II to nebular line fluxes together suggest that the bulk of Mg II
emission does not ultimately arise as nebular line emission, but may instead be
reprocessed stellar continuum emission.Comment: The Astrophysical Journal, in press. 6 pages, 2 figure
Detection of Iron Emission in the z = 5.74 QSO SDSSp J104433.04-012502.2
We obtained near-infrared spectroscopy of the z=5.74 QSO, SDSSp
J104433.04-012 502.2 with the Infrared Camera and Spectrograph of the Subaru
telescope. The redshift of 5.74 corresponds to a cosmological age of 1.0 Gyr
for the current Lambda-dominated cosmology. We found a similar strength of the
Fe II (3000-3500 A) emission lines in SDSSp J104433.04-012502.2 as in low
redshift QSOs. This is the highest redshift detection of iron. We subtracted a
power-law continuum from the spectrum and fitted model Fe II emission and
Balmer continuum. The rest equivalent width of Fe II (3000-3500 A) is ~30 A
which is similar to those of low redshift QSOs measured by the same manner. The
chemical enrichment models that assume the life time of the progenitor of SNe
Ia is longer than 1 Gyr predict that weaker Fe II emission than low red shift.
However, none of the observed high redshift (z > 3) QSOs show a systematic dec
rease of Fe II emission compared with low redshift QSOs. This may due to a
shorter lifetime of SNe Ia in QSO nuclei than in the solar neighborhood.
Another reason of strong Fe II emission at z=5.74 may be longer cosmological
age due to smaller Omega_M.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
The Origin of Fe II Emission in AGN
We used a very large set of models of broad emission line (BEL) clouds in AGN
to investigate the formation of the observed Fe II emission lines. We show that
photoionized BEL clouds cannot produce both the observed shape and observed
equivalent width of the 2200-2800A Fe II UV bump unless there is considerable
velocity structure corresponding to a microturbulent velocity parameter v_turb
> 100 km/s for the LOC models used here. This could be either microturbulence
in gas that is confined by some phenomenon such as MHD waves, or a velocity
shear such as in the various models of winds flowing off the surfaces of
accretion disks. The alternative way that we can find to simultaneously match
both the observed shape and equivalent width of the Fe II UV bump is for the Fe
II emission to be the result of collisional excitation in a warm, dense gas.
Such gas would emit very few lines other than Fe II. However, since the
collisionally excited gas would constitute yet another component in an already
complicated picture of the BELR, we prefer the model involving turbulence. In
either model, the strength of Fe II emission relative to the emission lines of
other ions such as Mg II depends as much on other parameters (either v_turb or
the surface area of the collisionally excited gas) as it does on the iron
abundance. Therefore, the measurement of the iron abundance from the FeII
emission in quasars becomes a more difficult problem.Comment: 23 pages. Accepted by Ap
A Systematic Analysis of Fe II Emission in Quasars: Evidence for Inflow to the Central Black Hole
Broad Fe II emission is a prominent feature of the optical and ultraviolet
spectra of quasars. We report on a systematical investigation of optical Fe II
emission in a large sample of 4037 z < 0.8 quasars selected from the Sloan
Digital Sky Survey. We have developed and tested a detailed line-fitting
technique, taking into account the complex continuum and narrow and broad
emission-line spectrum. Our primary goal is to quantify the velocity broadening
and velocity shift of the Fe II spectrum in order to constrain the location of
the Fe II-emitting region and its relation to the broad-line region. We find
that the majority of quasars show Fe II emission that is redshifted, typically
by ~ 400 km/s but up to 2000 km/s, with respect to the systemic velocity of the
narrow-line region or of the conventional broad-line region as traced by the
Hbeta line. Moreover, the line width of Fe II is significantly narrower than
that of the broad component of Hbeta. We show that the magnitude of the Fe II
redshift correlates inversely with the Eddington ratio, and that there is a
tendency for sources with redshifted Fe II emission to show red asymmetry in
the Hbeta line. These characteristics strongly suggest that Fe II originates
from a location different from, and most likely exterior to, the region that
produces most of Hbeta. The Fe II-emitting zone traces a portion of the
broad-line region of intermediate velocities whose dynamics may be dominated by
infall.Comment: 20 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
The Nuclear Ionized Gas in the Radio Galaxy M84 (NGC 4374)
We present optical images of the nucleus of the nearby radio galaxy M84 (NGC
4374 = 3C272.1) obtained with the Wide Field/Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) aboard
the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Our three images cover the H + [N II]
emission lines as well as the V and I continuum bands. Analysis of these images
confirms that the H + [N II] emission in the central 5'' (410 pc) is
elongated along position angle (P.A.) \approx 72\arcdeg, which is roughly
parallel to two nuclear dust lanes.Our high-resolution images reveal that the
H + [N II] emission has three components, namely a nuclear gas disk,an
`ionization cone', and outer filaments. The nuclear disk of ionized gas has
diameter pc and major axis P.A. \approx 58\arcdeg \pm
6\arcdeg. On an angular scale of 0\farcs5, the major axis of this nuclear
gas disk is consistent with that of the dust. However, the minor axis of the
gas disk (P.A. \approx 148\arcdeg) is tilted with respect to that of the
filamentary H + [N II] emission at distances > 2'' from the nucleus;
the minor axis of this larger scale gas is roughly aligned with the axis of the
kpc-scale radio jets (P.A. \approx 170\arcdeg). The ionization cone (whose
apex is offset by \approx 0\farcs3 south of the nucleus) extends 2'' from the
nucleus along the axis of the southern radio jet. This feature is similar to
the ionization cones seen in some Seyfert nuclei, which are also aligned with
the radio axes.Comment: 11 pages plus 4 figure
Star formation in high-redshift quasars: excess [O II] emission in the radio-loud population
We investigate the [O II] emission line properties of 18,508 quasars at z<1.6
drawn from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) quasar sample. The quasar sample
has been separated into 1,692 radio-loud and 16,816 radio-quiet quasars (RLQs
and RQQs hereafter) matched in both redshift and i'-band absolute magnitude.
We use the [O II]\lambda3726+3729 line as an indicator of star formation.
Based on these measurements we find evidence that star-formation activity is
higher in the RLQ population. The mean equivalent widths (EW) for [O II] are
EW([O II])_RL=7.80\pm0.30 \AA, and EW([O II])_RQ=4.77\pm0.06 \AA, for the RLQ
and RQQ samples respectively. The mean [O II] luminosities are \log[L([O
II])_RL/W]=34.31\pm0.01 and \log[L([O II])_RQ/W]=34.192\pm0.004 for the samples
of RLQs and RQQs respectively. Finally, to overcome possible biases in the EW
measurements due to the continuum emission below the [O II] line being
contaminated by young stars in the host galaxy, we use the ratio of the [O II]
luminosity to rest-frame i'-band luminosity, in this case, we find for the RLQs
\log[L([O II])_RL/L_opt]=-3.89\pm0.01 and \log[L([O
II])_RQ/L_opt]=-4.011\pm0.004 for RQQs. However the results depend upon the
optical luminosity of the quasar. RLQs and RQQs with the same high optical
luminosity \log(L_opt/W)>38.6, tend to have the same level of [O II] emission.
On the other hand, at lower optical luminosities \log(L_opt/W)<38.6, there is a
clear [O II] emission excess for the RLQs. As an additional check of our
results we use the [O III] emission line as a tracer of the bolometric
accretion luminosity, instead of the i'-band absolute magnitude, and we obtain
similar results.
Radio jets appear to be the main reason for the [O II] emission excess in the
case of RLQs. In contrast, we suggest AGN feedback ensures that the two
populations acquire the same [O II] emission at higher optical luminosities.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
- …