135 research outputs found
The origin of the Narrow Line Region of Mrk 3: an overpressured jet cocoon
We have obtained HST FOC long-slit optical spectroscopy of the Narrow Line
Region of the Seyfert 2 galaxy Mrk 3. In the region cospatial with the
radio-jet the velocity field is highly perturbed and shows two velocity systems
separated by as much as 1700 km/s. We interpret this to be the consequence of
the rapid expansion of a cocoon of hot gas, shocked and heated by the
radio-emitting outflow, which compresses and accelerates the ambient gas. The
NLR itself is essentially a cylindrical shell expanding supersonically. From
the size and velocity of the expanding region, we derive an upper limit to the
radio-source age, ~ 2
E42 erg/s required to inflate the cocoon and estimate that the jet minimum
advance speed is 3 E-3 pc per year. The total kinetic energy of the high
velocity NLR gas can be estimated as ~6 E54 erg, comparable to the total energy
carried by the jet over its lifetime and this quantitatively supports the idea
that the NLR gas is accelerated by the jet. If the advance speed of Mrk 3 is
representative of the Seyfert population then these sources must also be short
lived and probably recurrent. The jet kinetic luminosity of Mrk 3 is between 2
and 3 orders of magnitude smaller than that derived for radio-loud AGNs with
similar emission-line luminosity. On the other hand, the fraction of jet power
dissipated in radio-emission is similar. We speculate that the main distinction
between radio-quiet and radio-loud AGN is ascribed to a difference in jet power
rather than to a different efficiency in synchrotron emission production.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, Astrophysical Journal in pres
A comparison of the optical properties of radio-loud and radio-quiet quasars
We have made radio observations of 87 optically selected quasars at 5 GHz
with the VLA in order to measure the radio power for these objects and hence
determine how the fraction of radio-loud quasars varies with redshift and
optical luminosity. The sample has been selected from the recently completed
Edinburgh Quasar Survey and covers a redshift range of 0.3 < z < 1.5 and an
optical absolute magnitude range of -26.5 < M_{B} < -23.5 (h, q_{0} = 1/2). We
have also matched up other existing surveys with the FIRST and NVSS radio
catalogues and combined these data so that the optical luminosity-redshift
plane is now far better sampled than previously. We have fitted a model to the
probability of a quasar being radio-loud as a function of absolute magnitude
and redshift and from this model infer the radio-loud and radio-quiet optical
luminosity functions. The radio-loud optical luminosity function is featureless
and flatter than the radio-quiet one. It evolves at a marginally slower rate if
quasars evolve by density evolution, but the difference in the rate of
evolutions of the two different classes is much less than was previously
thought. We show, using Monte-Carlo simulations, that the observed difference
in the shape of the optical luminosity functions can be partly accounted for by
Doppler boosting of the optical continuum of the radio-loud quasars and explain
how this can be tested in the future.Comment: 33 pages, 9 postscript figures, uses the AAS aaspp4 LaTeX style file,
to appear in the 1 February 1999 issue of The Astrophysical Journa
Are Seyfert Narrow Line Regions Powered by Radio Jets?
We argue that the narrow line regions of Seyfert galaxies are powered by the
transport of energy and momentum by the radio-emitting jets and consequently
that the ratio of the radio power to jet energy flux is much smaller than is
usually assumed for radio galaxies. This can be partially attributed to the
smaller ages () of Seyferts compared to radio galaxies but one
also requires that either the magnetic energy density is more than an order of
magnitude below the equipartition value, or more likely, that the internal
energy densities of Seyfert jets are dominated by thermal plasma. If Seyfert
jets are initially dominated by relativistic plasma, then an analysis of the
data on jets in five Seyfert galaxies shows that all but one of these would
have mildly relativistic jet velocities near 100 pc in order to power the
respective narrow-line regions. However, observations of jet-cloud interactions
in the NLR provide additional information on jet velocities and composition via
the momentum budget. Our analysis of a jet-cloud interaction in NGC 1068,
implies a shocked jet pressure much larger than the minimum pressure of the
radio knot, a velocity and a jet temperature
implying mildly relativistic electrons but thermal protons. The jet mass flux
at this point , is an order of magnitude higher than
the mass accretion rate into the black hole, strongly indicating entrainment.
The initial jet mass flux , comparable to the mass
accretion rate and is consistent with the densities inferred for accretion disc
coronae from high energy observations, together with an initially mildly
relativistic velocity and an initial jet radius of order 10 gravitational
radii.Comment: LaTeX2e, uses astrobib.sty, 4 postscript figures; submitted to Ap
The Frequency of Polarized Broad Emission Lines in Type 2 Seyfert Galaxies
We have discovered polarized broad emission lines in five type 2 Seyfert
galaxies (NGC 424, NGC 591, NGC 2273, NGC 3081, and NGC 4507), establishing
that these objects are type 1 Seyferts obscured by dense circumnuclear
material. The galaxies are part of a distance-limited sample of 31 Seyfert 2s,
for which spectropolarimetric observations are now complete. Combined with
published reports, our results indicate that at least 11 of the galaxies in
this sample, or > 35%, possess hidden broad-line regions. This represents the
first reliable estimate of the frequency of polarized broad emission lines in
type 2 Seyferts, which has important implications for the general applicability
of Seyfert unification models.Comment: 13 pages, including 5 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ
Letter
BLR kinematics and Black Hole Mass in Markarian 6
We present results of the optical spectral and photometric observations of
the nucleus of Markarian 6 made with the 2.6-m Shajn telescope at the Crimean
Astrophysical Observatory. The continuum and emission Balmer line intensities
varied more than by a factor of two during 1992-2008. The lag between the
continuum and Hbeta emission line flux variations is 21.1+-1.9 days. For the
Halpha line the lag is about 27 days but its uncertainty is much larger. We use
Monte-Carlo simulation of the random time series to check the effect of our
data sampling on the lag uncertainties and we compare our simulation results
with those obtained by random subset selection (RSS) method of Peterson et al.
(1998). The lag in the high-velocity wings are shorter than in the line core in
accordance with the virial motions. However, the lag is slightly larger in the
blue wing than in the red wing. This is a signature of the infall gas motion.
Probably the BLR kinematic in the Mrk 6 nucleus is a combination of the
Keplerian and infall motions. The velocity-delay dependence is similar for
individual observational seasons. The measurements of the Hbeta line width in
combination with the reverberation lag permits us to determine the black hole
mass, M_BH=(1.8+-0.2)x10^8 M_sun. This result is consistent with the AGN
scaling relationships between the BLR radius and the optical continuum
luminosity (R_BLR is proportional to L^0.5) as well as with the black-hole
mass-luminosity relationship (M_BH-L) under the Eddington luminosity ratio for
Mrk 6 to be L_bol/L_Edd ~ 0.01.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Parsec-Scale Images of Flat-Spectrum Radio Sources in Seyfert Galaxies
We present high angular resolution (~2 mas) radio continuum observations of
five Seyfert galaxies with flat-spectrum radio nuclei, using the VLBA at 8.4
GHz. The goal of the project is to test whether these flat-spectrum cores
represent thermal emission from the accretion disk, as inferred previously by
Gallimore et al. for NGC 1068, or non-thermal, synchrotron self-absorbed
emission, which is believed to be responsible for more powerful, flat-spectrum
nuclear sources in radio galaxies and quasars. In four sources (T0109-383, NGC
2110, NGC 5252, Mrk 926), the nuclear source is detected but unresolved by the
VLBA, indicating brightness temperatures in excess of 10^8 K and sizes, on
average, less than 1 pc. We argue that the radio emission is non-thermal and
synchrotron self-absorbed in these galaxies, but Doppler boosting by
relativistic outflows is not required. Synchrotron self-absorption brightness
temperatures suggest intrinsic source sizes smaller than ~0.05-0.2 pc, for
these four galaxies, the smallest of which corresponds to a light-crossing time
of ~60 light days or 10^4 gravitational radii for a 10^8 M_sun black hole.
We also present MERLIN and VLA observations of NGC 4388, which was undetected
by the VLBA, and argue that the observed, flat-spectrum, nuclear radio emission
in this galaxy represents optically thin, free-free radiation from dense
thermal gas on scales ~0.4 to a few pc. It is notable that the two Seyfert
galaxies with detected thermal nuclear radio emission (NGC 1068 and NGC 4388)
both have large X-ray absorbing columns, suggesting that columns in excess of
\~10^{24} cm^{-2} are needed for such disks to be detectable. (Abridged)Comment: 36 pages including 5 tables and 4 figures; accepted for publication
in Ap
Milliarcsec-scale radio structure of a matched sample of Seyfert 1 and Seyfert 2 galaxies
We have obtained mas-scale resolution very long baseline interferometry
(VLBI) images of a sample of Seyfert 1 and Seyfert 2 galaxies at 5 GHz
(wavelength, = 6 cm). The Seyferts of the two types were chosen to be
matched in several orientation-independent properties, primarily in order to
rigorously test predictions of the unified scheme. We detected all the 15
objects that we observed. In this paper we describe the observations and data
reduction procedures, and present the VLBI radio images as well as simultaneous
Very Large Array images that we obtained for these 15 Seyferts.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figures (32 panels). Accepted for publication in
Astronomy & Astrophysic
The Megamaser Cosmology Project. III. Accurate Masses of Seven Supermassive Black Holes in Active Galaxies with Circumnuclear Megamaser Disks
Observations of HO masers from circumnuclear disks in active galaxies for
the Megamaser Cosmology Project allow accurate measurement of the mass of
supermassive black holes (BH) in these galaxies. We present the Very Long
Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) images and kinematics of water maser emission in
six active galaxies: NGC~1194, NGC~2273, NGC~2960 (Mrk~1419), NGC~4388,
NGC~6264 and NGC~6323. We use the Keplerian rotation curves of these six
megamaser galaxies, plus a seventh previously published, to determine accurate
enclosed masses within the central pc of these galaxies, smaller than
the radius of the sphere of influence of the central mass in all cases. We also
set lower limits to the central mass densities of between 0.12 and 60 ~pc. For six of the seven disks, the high central
densities rule out clusters of stars or stellar remnants as the central
objects, and this result further supports our assumption that the enclosed mass
can be attributed predominantly to a supermassive black hole. The seven BHs
have masses ranging between 0.76 and 6.510. The BH mass
errors are \%, dominated by the uncertainty of the Hubble constant.
We compare the megamaser BH mass determination with other BH mass measurement
techniques. The BH mass based on virial estimation in four galaxies is
consistent with the megamaser BH mass given the latest empirical value of
, but the virial mass uncertainty is much greater. MCP
observations continue and we expect to obtain more maser BH masses in the
future.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures. This paper has been submitted to ApJ. An updated
version of this paper will be posted when it gets accepte
Azimuthal and Kinematic Segregation of Neutral and Molecular Gas in Arp 118: The Yin-Yang Galaxy NGC 1144
We present new high-resolution HI observations of the disk of the collisional
infrared luminous (L L_{\sun}) galaxy NGC 1144,
which reveal an apparent large-scale azimuthal and kinematic segregation of
neutral hydrogen relative to the molecular gas distribution. Even among
violently collisional galaxies, the CO/HI asymmetry in NGC 1144 is unusual,
both in the inner regions, and in the outer disk. We suggest that we are
observing Arp 118 at a special moment, shortly after a high-speed collision
between NGC 1144 and its elliptical companion NGC 1143. HI emission with an
average molecular fraction f 0.5 is observed on one side (NW) of
the rotating disk of NGC 1144, while the other side (SE) is dominated by dense
molecular complexes in which f is almost unity. The interface region
between the warm-- and cool--cloud dominated regions, lies on a deep
spiral-like dust-lane which we identify as a shock-wave responsible for the
relative shift in the dominance of HI and H gas. A strong shock being fed
by diffuse HI clouds with unusually large ( 400 km s) rotational
velocities can explain: 1) the CO/HI asymmetries, 2) a large velocity jump (185
km s) across the arm as measured by HI absorption against a radio bright
continuum source which straddles the arm, and 3) the asymmetric distribution of
star formation and off-nuclear molecular gas resulting from likely streaming
motions associated with the strong-shock. The new results provide for the first
time a coherent picture of Arp 118's many peculiarities, and underlines the
potentially complex changes in the gas-phase that can accompany large
gravitational perturbations of gas-rich galaxies.Comment: 20 pages, two tables, 9 Figure
Phytosterols: From Preclinical Evidence to Potential Clinical Applications
Phytosterols (PSs) are plant-originated steroids. Over 250 PSs have been isolated, and each plant species contains a characteristic phytosterol composition. A wide number of studies have reported remarkable pharmacological effects of PSs, acting as chemopreventive, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antidiabetic, and antiatherosclerotic agents. However, PS bioavailability is a key issue, as it can be influenced by several factors (type, source, processing, preparation, delivery method, food matrix, dose, time of administration into the body, and genetic factors), and the existence of a close relationship between their chemical structures (e.g., saturation degree and side-chain length) and low absorption rates has been stated. In this sense, the present review intends to provide in-depth data on PS therapeutic potential for human health, also emphasizing their preclinical effects and bioavailability-related issues.NCM acknowledges the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology under the Horizon 2020 Program (PTDC/PSI-GER/ 28076/2017)
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