96 research outputs found
Improved and Quality-assessed Emission and Absorption Line measurements in Sloan Digital Sky Survey galaxies
We present a new database of absorption and emission-line measurements based
on the entire spectral atlas from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) 7th data
release of galaxies within a redshift of 0.2. Our work makes use of the
publicly available penalized pixel-fitting(pPXF) and gas and absorption line
fitting (gandalf) IDL codes, aiming to improve the existing measurements for
stellar kinematics, the strength of various absorption-line features, and the
flux and width of the emissions from different species of ionised gas. Our fit
to the stellar continuum uses both standard stellar population models and
empirical templates obtained by combining a large number of stellar spectra in
order to fit a subsample of high-quality SDSS spectra for quiescent galaxies.
Furthermore, our fit to the nebular spectrum includes an exhaustive list of
both recombination and forbidden lines. Foreground Galactic extinction is
implicitly treated in our models, whereas reddening in the SDSS galaxies is
included in the form of a simple dust screen component affecting the entire
spectrum that is accompanied by a second reddening component affecting only the
ionised gas emission. In order to check for systematic departures, we provide a
quality assessment for our fit to the SDSS spectra in our sample. This quality
assessment also allows the identification of objects with either problematic
data or peculiar features. For example, based on the quality assessment,
approximately 1% of the SDSS spectra classified as "galaxies" by the SDSS
pipeline do in fact require additional broad lines to be matched, even though
they do not show a strong continuum from an active nucleus, as do the SDSS
objects classified as "quasars". Finally, we provide new spectral templates for
galaxies of different Hubble types, obtained by combining the results of our
spectral fit for a subsample of 452 morphologically selected objects.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJS. 23 pages, 14 figures, 4 tables. A
version with high-resolution figures is available at
http://gem.yonsei.ac.kr/~ksoh/ossy/arXiv/Oh_11_OSSY.pd
Diffuse Gas in Retired Galaxies: Nebular Emission Templates and Constraints on the Sources of Ionization
We present emission line templates for passively evolving ("retired")
galaxies, useful for investigation of the evolution of the ISM in these
galaxies, and characterization of their high-temperature source populations.
The templates are based on high signal-to-noise () co-added spectra
(\AA) of gas-rich Sloan Digital Sky Survey galaxies
devoid of star-formation and active galactic nuclei. Stacked spectra are
provided for the entire sample and sub-samples binned by mean stellar age. In
Johansson~et al (2014), these spectra provided the first measurements of the He
II 4686\AA\ line in passively-evolving galaxies, and the observed He
II/H ratio constrained the contribution of accreting white dwarfs (the
"single-degenerate" scenario) to the type Ia supernova rate. In this paper, the
full range of unambiguously detected emission lines are presented. Comparison
of the observed [O I] 6300\AA/H ratio with photoionization models
further constrains any high-temperature single-degenerate scenario for type Ia
supernovae (with 1.5 T/ 10) to 3-6\%
of the observed rate in the youngest age bin (i.e. highest SN Ia rate). Hence,
for the same temperatures, in the presence of an ambient population of post-AGB
stars, we exclude additional high-temperature sources with a combined ionizing
luminosity of for stellar
populations with mean ages of 1 - 4 Gyrs. Furthermore, we investigate the
extinction affecting both the stellar and nebular continuum. The latter shows
about five times higher values. This contradicts isotropically distributed dust
and gas that renders similar extinction values for both cases.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 16 pages, 12 figure
Improved and quality-assess emission and absorption line measurements in Sloan digital sky survey galaxies
‘In these times, during the rise in the popularity of institutional repositories, the Society does not forbid authors from depositing their work in such repositories. However, the AAS regards the deposit of scholarly work in such repositories to be a decision of the individual scholar, as long as the individual's actions respect the diligence of the journals and their reviewers.’ Original article can be found at : http://iopscience.iop.org/ Copyright American Astronomical SocietyWe present a new database of absorption and emission-line measurements based on the entire spectral atlas from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) 7th data release of galaxies within a redshift of 0.2. Our work makes use of the publicly available penalized pixel-fitting (pPXF) and gas and absorption line fitting (gandalf) IDL codes, aiming to improve the existing measurements for stellar kinematics, the strength of various absorption-line features, and the flux and width of the emissions from different species of ionized gas. Our fit to the stellar continuum uses both standard stellar population models and empirical templates obtained by combining a large number of stellar spectra in order to fit a subsample of high-quality SDSS spectra for quiescent galaxies. Furthermore, our fit to the nebular spectrum includes an exhaustive list of both recombination and forbidden lines. Foreground Galactic extinction is implicitly treated in our models, whereas reddening in the SDSS galaxies is included in the form of a simple dust screen component affecting the entire spectrum that is accompanied by a second reddening component affecting only the ionized gas emission. In order to check for systematic departures from the rather standard set of assumptions that enters our models, we provide a quality assessment for our fit to the SDSS spectra in our sample, for both the stellar continuum and the nebular emissions and across different wavelength regions. This quality assessment also allows the identification of objects with either problematic data or peculiar features. We hope to foster the discovery potential of our database; therefore, our spectral fit is available to the community. For example, based on the quality assessment around the H alpha and [NII] lambda 6584 lines, approximately 1% of the SDSS spectra classified as "galaxies" by the SDSS pipeline do in fact require additional broad lines to be matched, even though they do not show a strong continuum from an active nucleus, as do the SDSS objects classified as "quasars." Finally, we provide new spectral templates for galaxies of different Hubble types, obtained by combining the results of our spectral fit for a subsample of 452 morphologically selected objects.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio
The Broadband X-Ray Spectrum of the X-Ray-obscured Type 1 AGN 2MASX J193013.80+341049.5
We present results from modeling the broadband X-ray spectrum of the Type 1 active galactic nucleus (AGN) 2MASX J193013.80+341049.5 using NuSTAR, Swift, and archival XMM-Newton observations. We find this source to be highly X-ray obscured, with column densities exceeding 10²³ cm⁻² across all epochs of X-ray observations, spanning an 8 yr period. However, the source exhibits prominent broad optical emission lines, consistent with an unobscured Type 1 AGN classification. We fit the X-ray spectra with both phenomenological reflection models and physically motivated torus models to model the X-ray absorption. We examine the spectral energy distribution of this source and investigate some possible scenarios to explain the mismatch between X-ray and optical classifications. We compare the ratio of reddening to X-ray absorbing column density (E_(B−V)/N_H) and find that 2MASX J193013.80+341049.5 likely has a much lower dust-to-gas ratio relative to the Galactic interstellar medium, suggesting that the broad line region itself could provide the source of extra X-ray obscuration, being composed of low-ionization, dust-free gas
The Swift/BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey (BASS) -- VI. The Gamma_X - L/L_Edd relation
We study the observed relation between accretion rate (in terms of L/L_Edd)
and shape of the hard X-ray spectral energy distribution (namely the photon
index Gamma_X) for a large sample of 228 hard X-ray selected, low-redshift
active galactic nuclei (AGN), drawn from the Swift/BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey
(BASS). This includes 30 AGN for which black hole mass (and therefore L/L_Edd)
is measured directly through masers, spatially resolved gas or stellar
dynamics, or reverberation mapping. The high quality and broad energy coverage
of the data provided through BASS allow us to examine several alternative
determinations of both Gamma_X and L/L_Edd. For the BASS sample as a whole, we
find a statistically significant, albeit very weak correlation between Gamma_X
and L/L_Edd. The best-fitting relations we find, Gamma_X=0.15
log(L/L_Edd)+const., are considerably shallower than those reported in previous
studies. Moreover, we find no corresponding correlations among the subsets of
AGN with different M_BH determination methodology. In particular, we find no
robust evidence for a correlation when considering only those AGN with direct
or single-epoch M_BH estimates. This latter finding is in contrast to several
previous studies which focused on z>0.5 broad-line AGN. We discuss this tension
and conclude that it can be partially accounted for if one adopts a simplified,
power-law X-ray spectral model, combined with L/L_Edd estimates that are based
on the continuum emission and on single-epoch broad line spectroscopy in the
optical regime. We finally highlight the limitations on using Gamma_X as a
probe of supermassive black hole evolution in deep extragalactic X-ray surveys.Comment: Resubmitted to MNRAS after addressing referee's comment
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