255 research outputs found
Akn 564: an unusual component in the X-ray spectra of NLSy1 galaxies
We present an ASCA observation of the NLSy1 Ark 564. The X-ray light curve
shows rapid variability, but no evidence for energy-dependence to these
variations, within the 0.6 -- 10 keV bandpass. A strong (EW ~ 70 eV) spectral
feature is observed close to 1 keV. A similar feature has been observed in TON
S180 (another NLSy1) but has not been observed in broad-line Seyfert galaxies.
The feature energy suggests a large contribution from Fe L-shell lines but its
intensity is difficult to explain in terms of emission and/or absorption from
photoionized gas. Models based on gas in thermal equilibrium with kT ~1 keV
provide an alternative parameterization of the soft spectrum. The latter may be
interpreted as the hot intercloud medium, undergoing rapid cooling and
producing strong Fe L-shell recombination lines. In all cases the physical
conditions are rather different from those observed in broad-line Seyferts. The
hard X-ray spectrum shows a broad and asymmetric Fe Kalpha line of large
equivalent width (~550 eV) which can be explained by a neutral disk viewed at ~
60 degrees to the line-of-sight, contrary to the hypothesis that NLSy1s are
viewed pole-on. The large EW of this line, the strong 1 keV emission and the
strong optical Fe emission lines all suggest an extreme Fe abundance in this
and perhaps other NLSy1s.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures. LaTeX with encapsulated postscript. Accepted for
publication in the Astrophysical Journa
Modeling Variable Emission Lines in AGNs: Method and Application to NGC 5548
We present a new scheme for modeling the broad line region in active galactic
nuclei (AGNs). It involves photoionization calculations of a large number of
clouds, in several pre-determined geometries, and a comparison of the
calculated line intensities with observed emission line light curves. Fitting
several observed light curves simultaneously provides strong constraints on
model parameters such as the run of density and column density across the
nucleus, the shape of the ionizing continuum, and the radial distribution of
the emission line clouds. When applying the model to the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC
5548, we were able to reconstruct the light curves of four ultraviolet
emission-lines, in time and in absolute flux. This has not been achieved by any
previous work. We argue that the Balmer lines light curves, and possibly also
the MgII2798 light curve, cannot be tested in this scheme because of the
limitations of present-day photoionization codes. Our fit procedure can be used
to rule out models where the particle density scales as r^{-2}, where r is the
distance from the central source. The best models are those where the density
scales as r^{-1} or r^{-1.5}. We can place a lower limit on the column density
at a distance of 1 ld, of N_{col}(r=1) >~ 10^{23} cm^{-2} and limit the
particle density to be in the range of 10^{12.5}>N(r=1)>10^{11} cm^{-3}. We
have also tested the idea that the spectral energy distribution (SED) of the
ionizing continuum is changing with continuum luminosity. None of the
variable-shape SED tried resulted in real improvement over a constant SED case
although models with harder continuum during phases of higher luminosity seem
to fit better the observed spectrum. Reddening and/or different composition
seem to play a minor role, at least to the extent tested in this work.Comment: 12 pages, including 9 embedded EPS figures, accepted for publication
in Ap
Is There a Metallicity--Luminosity Relationship in AGN? The Case of Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies
The well known relationship between metallicity and luminosity in AGN is
addressed by introducing new metallicity measurements (based on the method of
Hamann & Ferland 1993; HF93) for a sample of narrow-line Seyfert 1 (NLS1)
galaxies. Our new results, based on a sample of 162 AGN, including 9 NLS1s,
indicate that, while broad-line AGN trace a metallicity--luminosity power law
with an index of ~0.2, NLS1s deviate significantly from this relationship at
low luminosities. Adopting the HF93 method based on the N V/C IV line ratio, we
find that NLS1 metallicities are similar to those of some high-redshift
high-luminosity quasars. We also examined the N IV]/C IV line ratio and
compared it with N V/C IV in a sample of 30 sources including several NLS1s. We
find that the two do not give a consistent answer regarding the N/C abundance
ratio. This result is marginal because of the quality of the data. We suggest
two alternative explanations to these results: 1) The HF93
metallicity--luminosity dependence is not a simple two-parameter dependence and
there is an additional hidden variable in this relationship that has not yet
been discovered. The additional parameter may be the accretion rate, the age of
the central stellar cluster or, perhaps, something else. 2) The strong line
ratios involving N V 1240A suggested by HF93 are not adequate metallicity
indicators for NLS1s and perhaps also other AGN for reasons that are not yet
fully understood.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures; Figure 2 and Tables 1 and 2 were revised. This
did not affect any of the main results of the Letter (see also the Erratum:
2002, ApJ, 569, L59
XMM-Newton Spectroscopy of the Starburst Dominated Ultra Luminous Infrared Galaxy NGC 6240
We present new XMM-Newton observation of the Ultra Luminous Infrared Galaxy
(ULIRG) NGC 6240. We analyze the reflecting grating spectrometer (RGS) data,
and data from the other instruments, and find a starburst dominated 0.5-3 keV
spectrum with global properties resembling those observed in M82 but with a
much higher luminosity. We show that the starburst region can be divided into
an outer zone, beyond a radius of about 2.1 kpc, with a gas temperature of
about 10^7 K and a central region with temperatures in the range (2-6) x 10^7
K. The gas in the outer region emits most of the observed Oviii Lyman-alpha
line and the gas in the inner region the emission lines of higher ionization
ions, including a strong Fexxv line. We also identify a small inner part, very
close to the active nuclei, with typical Seyfert 2 properties including a large
amount of photoionized gas producing a strong Fe K-alpha 6.4 keV line. The
combined abundance, temperature and emission measure analysis indicates super
solar Ne/O, Mg/O, Si/O, S/O and possibly also Fe/O. The analysis suggests
densities in the range of (0.07-0.28) x epsilon^(-1/2) cm^(-3) and a total
thermal gas mass of about 4 x 10^8 x epsilon^(1/2) solar masses, where epsilon
is the volume filling factor. We used a simple model to argue that a massive
starburst with an age of about 2 x 10^7 years can explain most of the observed
properties of the source. NGC 6240 is perhaps the clearest case of an X-ray
bright luminous AGN, in a merger, whose soft X-ray spectrum is dominated by a
powerful starburst.Comment: 10 pages, 6 diagrams, accepted by ApJ, added a few minor change
The Relationship Between Luminosity and Broad-Line Region Size in Active Galactic Nuclei
We reinvestigate the relationship between the characteristic broad-line
region size (R_blr) and the Balmer emission-line, X-ray, UV, and optical
continuum luminosities. Our study makes use of the best available
determinations of R_blr for a large number of active galactic nuclei (AGNs)
from Peterson et al. Using their determinations of R_blr for a large sample of
AGNs and two different regression methods, we investigate the robustness of our
correlation results as a function of data sub-sample and regression technique.
Though small systematic differences were found depending on the method of
analysis, our results are generally consistent. Assuming a power-law relation
R_blr \propto L^\alpha, we find the mean best-fitting \alpha is about
0.67+/-0.05 for the optical continuum and the broad H\beta luminosity, about
0.56+/-0.05 for the UV continuum luminosity, and about 0.70+/-0.14 for the
X-ray luminosity. We also find an intrinsic scatter of about 40% in these
relations. The disagreement of our results with the theoretical expected slope
of 0.5 indicates that the simple assumption of all AGNs having on average same
ionization parameter, BLR density, column density, and ionizing spectral energy
distribution, is not valid and there is likely some evolution of a few of these
characteristics along the luminosity scale.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, emulateapj, accepted for publication in The
Astrophysical Journa
The Nature of Associated Absorption and the UV-X-ray Connection in 3C 288.1
We discuss new Hubble Space Telescope spectroscopy of the radio-loud quasar,
3C 288.1. The data cover ~590 A to ~1610 A in the quasar rest frame. They
reveal a wealth of associated absorption lines (AALs) with no accompanying
Lyman-limit absorption. The metallic AALs range in ionization from C III and N
III to Ne VIII and Mg X. We use these data and photoionization models to derive
the following properties of the AAL gas: 1) There are multiple ionization zones
within the AAL region, spanning a factor of at least ~50 in ionization
parameter. 2) The overall ionization is consistent with the ``warm'' X-ray
continuum absorbers measured in Seyfert 1 nuclei and other QSOs. However, 3)
the column densities implied by the AALs in 3C 288.1 are too low to produce
significant bound-free absorption at any UV-X-ray wavelengths. Substantial
X-ray absorption would require yet another zone, having a much higher
ionization or a much lower velocity dispersion than the main AAL region. 4) The
total hydrogen column density in the AAL gas is log N_H (cm-2)= 20.2. 5) The
metallicity is roughly half solar. 6) The AALs have deconvolved widths of ~900
km/s and their centroids are consistent with no shift from the quasar systemic
velocity (conservatively within +/-1000 km/s). 7) There are no direct
indicators of the absorber's location in our data, but the high ionization and
high metallicity both suggest a close physical relationship to the quasar/host
galaxy environment. Finally, the UV continuum shape gives no indication of a
``blue bump'' at higher energies. There is a distinct break of unknown origin
at ~1030 A, and the decline toward higher energies (with spectral index alpha =
-1.73, for f_nu ~ nu^alpha) is even steeper than a single power-law
interpolation from 1030 A to soft X-rays.Comment: 27 pages with figures and tables, in press with Ap
Massive perturbers and the efficient merger of binary massive black holes
We show that dynamical relaxation in the aftermath of a galactic merger and
the ensuing formation and decay of a binary massive black hole (MBH), are
dominated by massive perturbers (MPs) such as giant molecular clouds or
clusters. MPs accelerate relaxation by orders of magnitude relative to 2-body
stellar relaxation alone, and efficiently scatter stars into the binary MBH's
orbit. The 3-body star-binary MBH interactions shrink the binary MBH to the
point where energy losses from the emission of gravitational waves (GW) lead to
rapid coalescence. We model this process based on observed and simulated MP
distributions and take into account the decreased efficiency of the star-binary
MBH interaction due to acceleration in the galactic potential. We show that
mergers of gas-rich galactic nuclei lead to binary MBH coalescence well within
the Hubble time. Moreover, lower-mass binary MBHs (<10^8 Msun) require only a
few percent of the typical gas mass in a post-merger nucleus to coalesce in a
Hubble time. The fate of a binary MBH in a gas poor galactic merger is less
certain, although massive stellar structures (e.g. clusters, stellar rings)
could likewise lead to efficient coalescence. These coalescence events are
observable by their strong GW emission. MPs thus increase the cosmic rate of
such GW events, lead to a higher mass deficit in the merged galactic core and
suppress the formation of triple MBH systems and the resulting ejection of MBHs
into intergalactic space.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables. More detailed explanations and changes
in structure. Section on hypervelocity stars moved to another paper (in
preparation). Results and conclusions unchanged. Accepted to Ap
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