148 research outputs found
A CO Survey of Gravitationally Lensed Quasars with the IRAM Interferometer
We present the results of a CO survey of gravitationally lensed quasars,
conducted with the Plateau de Bure Interferometer over the last three years.
Among the 18 objects surveyed, one was detected in CO line emission, while six
were detected in the continuum at 3mm and three in the continuum at 1mm. The
low CO detection rate may at least in part be due to uncertainties in the
redshifts derived from quasar broad emission lines. The detected CO source, the
z=3.2 radio quiet quasar MG0751+2716, is quite strong in the CO(4-3) line and
in the millimeter/submillimeter continuum, the latter being emission from cool
dust. The integrated CO line flux is 5.96 +- 0.45 Jy.km/s, and the total
molecular gas mass is estimated to be in the range M(H_2) = 1.6-3.1 X 10^9
solar masses.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, uses aa.cls and psfig.st
Molecular Gas in Quasar Hosts
The study of molecular gas in quasar host galaxies addresses a number of interesting questions pertaining to the hosts' ISM, to unified schemes relating quasars and IR galaxies, and to the processes fueling nuclear activity. In this contribution I review observations of molecular gas in quasar hosts from z=0.06 to z=4.7. The Cloverleaf quasar at z=2.5 is featured as a case where there are now enough detected transitions (four in CO, and one each in CI and HCN) to allow detailed modeling of physical conditions in the molecular ISM. We find that the CO-emitting gas is warmer, denser, and less optically thick than that found in typical Galactic molecular clouds. These differences are probably due to the presence of the luminous quasar in the nucleus of the Cloverleaf's host galaxy
Exploring the inner region of Type 1 AGNs with the Keck interferometer
The exploration of extragalactic objects with long-baseline interferometers
in the near-infrared has been very limited. Here we report successful
observations with the Keck interferometer at K-band (2.2 um) for four Type 1
AGNs, namely NGC4151, Mrk231, NGC4051, and the QSO IRAS13349+2438 at z=0.108.
For the latter three objects, these are the first long-baseline interferometric
measurements in the infrared. We detect high visibilities (V^2 ~ 0.8-0.9) for
all the four objects, including NGC4151 for which we confirm the high V^2 level
measured by Swain et al.(2003). We marginally detect a decrease of V^2 with
increasing baseline lengths for NGC4151, although over a very limited range,
where the decrease and absolute V^2 are well fitted with a ring model of radius
0.45+/-0.04 mas (0.039+/-0.003 pc). Strikingly, this matches independent radius
measurements from optical--infrared reverberations that are thought to be
probing the dust sublimation radius. We also show that the effective radius of
the other objects, obtained from the same ring model, is either roughly equal
to or slightly larger than the reverberation radius as a function of AGN
luminosity. This suggests that we are indeed partially resolving the dust
sublimation region. The ratio of the effective ring radius to the reverberation
radius might also give us an approximate probe for the radial structure of the
inner accreting material in each object. This should be scrutinized with
further observations.Comment: accepted for publication in A&A Letter
The essential signature of a massive starburst in a distant galaxy
Observations of carbon monoxide (CO) emission in high redshift (z>2) galaxies
indicate the presence of large amounts of molecular gas. Many of these galaxies
contain an active galactic nucleus (AGN) powered by accretion of gas onto a
supermassive black hole, and a key question is whether their extremely high
infrared luminosities result from the AGN, or from bursts of massive star
formation (associated with the molecular gas), or both. In the Milky Way,
high-mass stars form in the dense cores of interstellar molecular clouds; gas
densities are n(H2)>105 cm-3 in the cores. Recent surveys show that virtually
all galactic sites of high-mass star formation have similarly high densities.
The bulk of the cloud material traced by CO observations is at a much lower
density. In galaxies in the local Universe, the HCN(J=1-0) line is an effective
tracer of the high-density molecular gas. Here we report observations of HCN
emission in the early Universe from the infrared luminous 'Cloverleaf' quasar
(at a redshift z=2.5579). The HCN line luminosity indicates the presence of 10
billion solar masses of very dense gas, an essential feature of an immense
starburst that contributes, together with the AGN it harbors, to its high
infrared luminosity.Comment: PDF pape
Big Blue Bump and Transient Active Regions in Seyfert Galaxies
An important feature of the EUV spectrum (known as the Big Blue Bump,
hereafter BBB) in Seyfert Galaxies is the narrow range in its cutoff energy E0
from source to source, even though the luminosity changes by 4 orders of
magnitude. Here we show that if the BBB is due to accretion disk emission, then
in order to account for this ``universality'' in the value of E0, the emission
mechanism is probably optically thin bremsstrahlung. In addition, we
demonstrate that the two-phase model with active regions localized on the
surface of the cold disk is consistent with this constraint if the active
regions are very compact and are highly transient, i.e., they evolve faster
than one dynamical time scale.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJL, uses aas2pp4.st
VLBI Imaging of Water Maser Emission from the Nuclear Torus of NGC 1068
We have made the first VLBI synthesis images of the H2O maser emission
associated with the central engine of the Seyfert galaxy NGC 1068. Emission
extends about +/-300 km/s from the systemic velocity. Images with
submilliarcsecond angular resolution show that the red-shifted emission lies
along an arc to the northwest of the systemic emission. (The blue-shifted
emission has not yet been imaged with VLBI.) Based on the maser velocities and
the relative orientation of the known radio jet, we propose that the maser
emission arises on the surface of a nearly edge-on torus, where physical
conditions are conducive to maser action. The visible part of the torus is
axially thick, with comparable height and radius. The velocity field indicates
sub-Keplerian differential rotation around a central mass of about 1e7 Msun
that lies within a cylindrical radius of about 0.65 pc. The estimated
luminosity of the central engine is about 0.5 of the Eddington limit. There is
no detectable compact radio continuum emission near the proposed center of the
torus (T_B< 5e6 K on size scales of about 0.1 pc), so that the observed
flat-spectrum core cannot be direct self-absorbed synchrotron radiation.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures. To appear in ApJ Part 2. Also available at
http://www.physics.ucsb.edu/~vlbiweb
A sensitive search for CO J=1-0 emission in 4C 41.17: high-excitation molecular gas at z=3.8
We report sensitive imaging observations of the CO J=1-0 line emission in the
powerful high-redshift radio galaxy 4C 41.17 (z=3.8) with the NRAO Very Large
Array (VLA), conducted in order to detect the large concomitant H_2 gas
reservoir recently unveiled in this system by De Breuck et al (2005) via the
emission of the high excitation J=4-3 line. Our observations fail to detect the
J=1-0 line but yield sensitive lower limits on the R_43=(4-3)/(1-0) brightness
temperature ratio of R_43 ~ 0.55 - >1.0 for the bulk of the H_2 gas mass. Such
high ratios are typical of the high-excitation molecular gas phase ``fueling''
the star formation in local starbursts, but quite unlike these objects, much of
the molecular gas in 4C 41.17 seems to be in such a state, and thus
participating in the observed starburst episode. The widely observed and unique
association of highly excited molecular gas with star forming sites allows CO
line emission with large (high-J)/(low-J) intensity ratios to serve as an
excellent ``marker'' of the spatial distribution of star formation in distant
dust-obscured starbursts, unaffected by extinction.Comment: 7 Pages including 8 PostScript figures. Accepted for publication in
Astronomy & Astrophysic
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