489 research outputs found
The complexity of parsec-scaled dusty tori in AGN
Warm gas and dust surround the innermost regions of active galactic nuclei
(AGN). They provide the material for accretion onto the super-massive black
hole and they are held responsible for the orientation-dependent obscuration of
the central engine. The AGN-heated dust distributions turn out to be very
compact with sizes on scales of about a parsec in the mid-infrared. Only
infrared interferometry currently provides the necessary angular resolution to
directly study the physical properties of this dust. Size estimates for the
dust distributions derived from interferometric observations can be used to
construct a size--luminosity relation for the dust distributions. The large
scatter about this relation suggests significant differences between the dust
tori in the individual galaxies, even for nuclei of the same class of objects
and with similar luminosities. This questions the simple picture of the same
dusty doughnut in all AGN. The Circinus galaxy is the closest Seyfert 2 galaxy.
Because its mid-infrared emission is well resolved interferometrically, it is a
prime target for detailed studies of its nuclear dust distribution. An
extensive new interferometric data set was obtained for this galaxy. It shows
that the dust emission comes from a very dense, disk-like structure which is
surrounded by a geometrically thick, similarly warm dust distribution as well
as significant amounts of warm dust within the ionisation cone.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the conference
"The central kiloparsec in Galactic Nuclei: Astronomy at High Angular
Resolution 2011", open access Journal of Physics: Conference Series (JPCS),
published by IOP Publishin
Contrasting in-person to virtual conference & teaching emission footprints
Science Communication and Societ
Photoionization profiles of metal clusters and the Fowler formula
Metal cluster ionization potentials are important characteristics of these
"artificial atoms," but extracting these quantities from cluster
photoabsorption spectra, especially in the presence of thermal smearing,
remains a big challenge. Here we demonstrate that the classic Fowler theory of
surface photoemission does an excellent job of fitting the photoabsorption
profile shapes of neutral In_{n=3-34} clusters [Wucher et al., New J. Phys. 10,
103007 (2008)]. The deduced ionization potentials extrapolate precisely to the
bulk work function, and the internal cluster temperatures are in close
agreement with values expected for an ensemble of freely evaporating clusters.
Supplementing an earlier application to potassium clusters, these results
suggest that the Fowler formalism, which is straightforward and physical, may
be of significant utility in metal cluster spectroscopy. It is hoped also that
the results will encourage a comprehensive theoretical analysis of the
applicability of bulk-derived models to cluster photoionization behavior, and
of the transition from atomic and molecular-type to surface-type photoemission
GRAVITY: the Calibration Unit
We present in this paper the design and characterisation of a new sub-system
of the VLTI 2nd generation instrument GRAVITY: the Calibration Unit. The
Calibration Unit provides all functions to test and calibrate the beam combiner
instrument: it creates two artificial stars on four beams, and dispose of four
delay lines with an internal metrology. It also includes artificial stars for
the tip-tilt and pupil guiding systems, as well as four metrology pick-up
diodes, for tests and calibration of the corresponding sub-systems. The
calibration unit also hosts the reference targets to align GRAVITY to the VLTI,
and the safety shutters to avoid the metrology light to propagate in the
VLTI-lab. We present the results of the characterisation and validtion of these
differrent sub-units.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures. Proceeding of SPIE 9146 "Optical and Infrared
Interferometry IV
On the relation of optical obscuration and X-ray absorption in Seyfert galaxies
The optical classification of a Seyfert galaxy and whether it is considered
X-ray absorbed are often used interchangeably. But there are many borderline
cases and also numerous examples where the optical and X-ray classifications
appear to be in conflict. In this article we re-visit the relation between
optical obscuration and X-ray absorption in AGNs. We make use of our "dust
color" method (Burtscher et al. 2015) to derive the optical obscuration A_V and
consistently estimated X-ray absorbing columns using 0.3--150 keV spectral
energy distributions. We also take into account the variable nature of the
neutral gas column N_H and derive the Seyfert sub-classes of all our objects in
a consistent way.
We show in a sample of 25 local, hard-X-ray detected Seyfert galaxies (log
L_X / (erg/s) ~ 41.5 - 43.5) that there can actually be a good agreement
between optical and X-ray classification. If Seyfert types 1.8 and 1.9 are
considered unobscured, the threshold between X-ray unabsorbed and absorbed
should be chosen at a column N_H = 10^22.3 / cm^2 to be consistent with the
optical classification.
We find that N_H is related to A_V and that the N_H/A_V ratio is
approximately Galactic or higher in all sources, as indicated previously. But
in several objects we also see that deviations from the Galactic ratio are only
due to a variable X-ray column, showing that (1) deviations from the Galactic
N_H/A_V can simply be explained by dust-free neutral gas within the broad line
region in some sources, that (2) the dust properties in AGNs can be similar to
Galactic dust and that (3) the dust color method is a robust way to estimate
the optical extinction towards the sublimation radius in all but the most
obscured AGNs.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication by A&A; updated PDF to
include abstrac
The GRAVITY metrology system: modeling a metrology in optical fibers
GRAVITY is the second generation VLT Interferometer (VLTI) instrument for
high-precision narrow-angle astrometry and phase-referenced interferometric
imaging. The laser metrology system of GRAVITY is at the heart of its
astrometric mode, which must measure the distance of 2 stars with a precision
of 10 micro-arcseconds. This means the metrology has to measure the optical
path difference between the two beam combiners of GRAVITY to a level of 5 nm.
The metrology design presents some non-common paths that have consequently to
be stable at a level of 1 nm. Otherwise they would impact the performance of
GRAVITY. The various tests we made in the past on the prototype give us hints
on the components responsible for this error, and on their respective
contribution to the total error. It is however difficult to assess their exact
origin from only OPD measurements, and therefore, to propose a solution to this
problem. In this paper, we present the results of a semi-empirical modeling of
the fibered metrology system, relying on theoretical basis, as well as on
characterisations of key components. The modeling of the metrology system
regarding various effects, e.g., temperature, waveguide heating or mechanical
stress, will help us to understand how the metrology behave. The goals of this
modeling are to 1) model the test set-ups and reproduce the measurements (as a
validation of the modeling), 2) determine the origin of the non-common path
errors, and 3) propose modifications to the current metrology design to reach
the required 1nm stability.Comment: 20 pages, 19 figures. Proceeding of SPIE 9146 "Optical and Infrared
Interferometry IV
Inferring Compton-thick AGN candidates at z>2 with Chandra using the >8 keV restframe spectral curvature
To fully understand cosmic black hole growth we need to constrain the
population of heavily obscured active galactic nuclei (AGN) at the peak of
cosmic black hole growth (1-3). Sources with obscuring column densities
higher than atoms , called Compton-thick
(CT) AGN, can be identified by excess X-ray emission at 20-30 keV, called
the "Compton hump". We apply the recently developed Spectral Curvature (SC)
method to high-redshift AGN (2<z<5) detected with Chandra. This method
parametrizes the characteristic "Compton hump" feature cosmologically
redshifted into the X-ray band at observed energies <10 keV. We find good
agreement in CT AGN found using the SC method and bright sources fit using
their full spectrum with X-ray spectroscopy. In the Chandra deep field south,
we measure a CT fraction of (3/17) for sources with
observed luminosity erg . In the
Cosmological evolution survey (COSMOS), we find an observed CT fraction of
(40/272) or when corrected for
the survey sensitivity. When comparing to low redshift AGN with similar X-ray
luminosities, our results imply the CT AGN fraction is consistent with having
no redshift evolution. Finally, we provide SC equations that can be used to
find high-redshift CT AGN (z>1) for current (XMM-Newton) and future (eROSITA
and ATHENA) X-ray missions.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure
Photoelectric Emission from Interstellar Dust: Grain Charging and Gas Heating
We model the photoelectric emission from and charging of interstellar dust
and obtain photoelectric gas heating efficiencies as a function of grain size
and the relevant ambient conditions. Using realistic grain size distributions,
we evaluate the net gas heating rate for various interstellar environments, and
find less heating for dense regions characterized by R_V=5.5 than for diffuse
regions with R_V=3.1. We provide fitting functions which reproduce our
numerical results for photoelectric heating and recombination cooling for a
wide range of interstellar conditions. In a separate paper we will examine the
implications of these results for the thermal structure of the interstellar
medium. Finally, we investigate the potential importance of photoelectric
heating in H II regions, including the warm ionized medium. We find that
photoelectric heating could be comparable to or exceed heating due to
photoionization of H for high ratios of the radiation intensity to the gas
density. We also find that photoelectric heating by dust can account for the
observed variation of temperature with distance from the galactic midplane in
the warm ionized medium.Comment: 50 pages, including 18 figures; corrected title and abstract field
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