1,170 research outputs found
Spectral properties of the narrow-line region in Seyfert galaxies selected from the SDSS-DR7
Although the properties of the narrow-line region (NLR) of active galactic
nuclei(AGN) have been deeply studied by many authors in the past three decades,
many questions are still open. The main goal of this work is to explore the NLR
of Seyfert galaxies by collecting a large statistical spectroscopic sample of
Seyfert 2 and Intermediate-type Seyfert galaxies having a high signal-to-noise
ratio in order to take advantage of a high number of emission-lines to be
accurately measured. 2153 Seyfert 2 and 521 Intermediate-type Seyfert spectra
were selected from Sloan Digital Sky Survey - Data Release 7 (SDSS-DR7) with a
diagnostic diagram based on the oxygen emission-line ratios. All the
emission-lines, broad components included, were measured by means of a
self-developed code, after the subtraction of the stellar component. Physical
parameters, such as internal reddening, ionization parameter, temperature,
density, gas and stellar velocity dispersion were determined for each object.
Furthermore, we estimated mass and radius of the NLR, kinetic energy of the
ionized gas, and black-hole accretion rate. From the emission-line analysis and
the estimated physical properties, it appears that the NLR is similar in
Seyfert 2 and Intermediate-Seyfert galaxies. The only differences, lower
extinction, gas kinematics in general not dominated by the host galaxy
gravitational potential and higher percentage of [O III]5007 blue asymmetries
in Intermediate-Seyfert can be ascribed to an effect of inclination of our line
of sight with respect to the torus axis.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA
Optical Emission Lines and the X-Ray Properties of Type 1 Seyfert Galaxies
In this contribution we report on the study of the optical emission lines and
X-ray spectra of a sample of Type 1 AGNs, collected at the Sloan Digital Sky
Survey database and observed by the XMM Newton satellite. Exploiting the
different instruments carried onboard XMM, we identify the spectral components
of the soft and hard energy bands (in the range from 0.3 keV up to 10 keV). The
properties of the X-ray continuum and of the Fe Kalpha line feature are
investigated in relation to the optical broad emission line profiles and
intensity ratios. The resulting picture of emission, absorption and reflection
processes is interpreted by means of a BLR structural model that was developed
on the basis of independent optical and radio observations.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, Proceedings of the VIII Serbian Conference on
Spectral Line Shapes in Astrophysics, accepted for publication on Baltic
Astronomy. Corrected typos in V
The Relation between Nuclear Activity and Stellar Mass in Galaxies
The existence of correlations between nuclear properties of galaxies, such as
the mass of their central black holes, and larger scale features, like the
bulge mass and luminosity, represent a fundamental constraint on galaxy
evolution. Although the actual reasons for these relations have not yet been
identified, it is widely believed that they could stem from a connection
between the processes that lead to black hole growth and stellar mass assembly.
The problem of understanding how the processes of nuclear activity and star
formation can affect each other became known to the literature as the
Starburst-AGN connection. Despite years of investigation, the physical
mechanisms which lie at the basis of this relation are known only in part. In
this work, we analyze the problem of star formation and nuclear activity in a
large sample of galaxies. We study the relations between the properties of the
nuclear environments and of their host galaxies. We find that the mass of the
stellar component within the galaxies of our sample is a critical parameter,
that we have to consider in an evolutionary sequence, which provides further
insight in the connection between AGN and star formation processes.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication on MNRAS. Reference to
the mass derivation procedure correcte
A spectroscopic analysis of a sample of narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
We revisited the spectroscopic characteristics of narrow-line Seyfert 1
galaxies (NLS1s) by analysing a homogeneous sample of 296 NLS1s at redshift
between 0.028 and 0.345, extracted from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-DR7)
public archive. We confirm that NLS1s are mostly characterized by Balmer lines
with Lorentzian profiles, lower black hole masses and higher Eddington ratios
than classic broad-line Seyfert 1 (BLS1s), but they also appear to be active
galactic nuclei (AGNs) contiguous with BLS1s and sharing with them common
properties. Strong Fe II emission does not seem to be a distinctive property of
NLS1s, as low values of Fe II/H are equally observed in these AGNs. Our
data indicate that Fe II and Ca II kinematics are consistent with the one of
H. On the contrary, O I 8446 seems to be systematically
narrower and it is likely emitted by gas of the broad-line region more distant
from the ionizing source and showing different physical properties. Finally,
almost all NLS1s of our sample show radial motions of the narrow-line region
highly-ionised gas. The mechanism responsible for this effect is not yet clear,
but there are hints that very fast outflows require high continuum luminosities
(> erg/s) or high Eddington ratios (log(L/L)
> -0.1).Comment: 27 pages, 31 figures, 4 tables, accepted for publication in MNRA
[O III] line properties in two samples of radio-emitting narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies
The [O III] 4959,5007 lines are a useful proxy to test the
kinematic of the narrow-line region (NLR) in active galactic nuclei (AGN). In
AGN, and particularly in narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies (NLS1s) these lines
often show few peculiar features, such as blue wings, often interpreted as
outflowing component, and a shift typically toward lower wavelengths of
the whole spectroscopic feature in some exceptional sources, the so-called blue
outliers, which are often associated to strong winds. We investigated the
incidence of these peculiarities in two samples of radio-emitting NLS1s, one
radio-loud and one radio-quiet. We also studied a few correlations between the
observational properties of the [O III] lines and those of the AGN. Our aim was
to understand the difference between radio-quiet and radio-loud NLS1s, which
may in turn provide useful information on the jet formation mechanism. We find
that the NLR gas is much more perturbed in radio-loud than in radio-quiet
NLS1s. In particular the NLR dynamics in -ray emitting NLS1s appears to
be highly disturbed, and this might be a consequence of interaction with the
relativistic jet. The less frequently perturbed NLR in radio-quiet NLS1s
suggests instead that these sources likely do not harbor a fully developed
relativistic jet. Nonetheless blue-outliers in radio-quiet NLS1s are observed,
and we interpret them as a product of strong winds.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures, 7 tables, accepted for publication on Astronomy
& Astrophysic
Are Boltzmann Plots of Hydrogen Balmer lines a tool for identifying a subclass of S1 AGN?
It is becoming clear that we can define two different types of nearby AGN
belonging to the Seyfert 1 class (S1), on the basis of the match of the
intensities of their Broad Balmer Lines (BBL) with the Boltzmann Plots (BP).
These two types of S1 galaxies, that we call BP-S1 and NoBP-S1, are
characterized, in first approximation, by Broad Line Regions (BLR) with
different structural and physical properties. In this communication, we show
that these features can be well pointed out by a multi-wavelength analysis of
the continuum and of the broad recombination Hydrogen lines, that we carry out
on a sample of objects detected at optical and X-ray frequencies. The
investigation is addressed to verify whether BP-S1 are the ideal candidates for
the study of the kinematical and structural properties of the BLR, in order to
derive reliable estimates of the mass of their central engine and to constrain
the properties of their nuclear continuum spectrum.Comment: 26 pages, 4 figures (1 multi-paged). Accepted for publication on
Advances in Space Research. Contribution to the IX SCSLS
Detailed Analysis of Balmer Lines in a Sloan Digital Sky Survey Sample of 90 Broad Line Active Galactic Nuclei
In order to contribute to the general effort aiming at the improvement of our
knowledge about the physical conditions within the Broad Line Region (BLR) of
Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), here we present the results achieved by our
analysis of the spectral properties of a sample of 90 broad line emitting
sources, collected at the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) database. By focusing
our attention mainly onto the Balmer series of hydrogen emission lines, which
is the dominant feature in the optical wavelength range of many BLR spectra, we
extracted several flux and profile measurements, which we related to other
source properties, such as optical continuum luminosities, inferred black hole
masses, and accretion rates. Using the Boltzmann Plot method to investigate the
Balmer line flux ratios as a function of the line profiles, we found that
broader line emitting AGN typically have larger H_alpha / H_beta and smaller
H_gamma / H_beta and H_delta / H_beta line ratios. With the help of some recent
investigations, we model the structure of the BLR and we study the influence of
the accretion process on the properties of the BLR plasma.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures, fixes the wrong names of 4 objects; published
on Ap
High resolution spectroscopy of the extended narrow-line region of IC 5063 and NGC 7212
We studied the properties of the gas of the extended narrow line region
(ENLR) of two Seyfert 2 galaxies: IC 5063 and NGC 7212. We analysed high
resolution spectra to investigate how the main properties of this region depend
on the gas velocity. We divided the emission lines in velocity bins and we
calculated several line ratios. Diagnostic diagrams and SUMA composite models
(photo-ionization + shocks), show that in both galaxies there might be evidence
of shocks significantly contributing in the gas ionization at high |V|, even
though photo-ionization from the active nucleus remains the main ionization
mechanism. In IC 5063 the ionization parameter depends on V and its trend might
be explained assuming an hollow bi-conical shape for the ENLR, with one of the
edges aligned with the galaxy disk. On the other hand, NGC 7212 does not show
any kind of dependence. The models show that solar O/H relative abundances
reproduce the observed spectra in all the analysed regions. They also revealed
an high fragmentation of the gas clouds, suggesting that the complex kinematics
observed in these two objects might be caused by interaction between the ISM
and high velocity components, such as jets.Comment: 29 pages, 32 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
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