- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/884/103
- Title:
- Medium-band photometry RM of 5 nearby AGNs
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/884/103
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Reverberation mapping (RM) is one of the most efficient ways to investigate the broad-line region around the central supermassive black holes of active galactic nuclei (AGNs). A common way of performing the RM is to perform a long term spectroscopic monitoring of AGNs, but the spectroscopic monitoring campaign of a large number of AGNs requires an extensive amount of observing time of medium to large size telescopes. As an alternative way, we present the results of photometric RM with medium-band photometry. As the widths of medium-band filters match well with the widths of AGN broad emission lines, the medium-band observation with small telescopes can be a cost-effective way to perform RM. We monitored five nearby AGNs with available spectroscopic RM results showing days to weeks scale variability. Observations were performed for ~3 months with an average of 3 days cadence using three medium-band filters on a 0.43m telescope. The time lags between the continuum and the H{alpha} emission line light curves are calculated using the JAVELIN software and the discrete correlation function. We find time lags of 1.5-15.9d for these AGNs, which are consistent with the time lags derived from previous spectroscopic RM measurements. This result demonstrates that even a 0.5m class telescope can perform RM with medium-bands. Furthermore, we show that RM for tens of thousands AGNs is possible with a dedicated 1m class telescope.
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Search Results
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/890/118
- Title:
- Megamaser Cosmology Project. XI. Z74-64 VLBI obs.
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/890/118
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- As part of the survey component of the Megamaser Cosmology Project, we have discovered a disk megamaser system in the galaxy CGCG 074-064. Using the Green Bank Telescope and the Very Large Array, we have obtained spectral monitoring observations of this maser system at a monthly cadence over the course of two years. We find that the systemic maser features display line-of-sight accelerations of ~4.4km/s/yr that are nearly constant with velocity, while the high-velocity maser features show accelerations that are consistent with zero. We have also used the High-Sensitivity Array to make a high-sensitivity very long baseline interferometric map of the maser system in CGCG 074-064, which reveals that the masers reside in a thin, edge-on disk with a diameter of ~1.5mas (0.6pc). Fitting a three-dimensional warped disk model to the data, we measure a black hole mass of 2.42_-0.20_^+0.22^x10^7^M_{sun}_ and a geometric distance to the system of 87.6_-7.2_^+7.9^Mpc. Assuming a cosmic microwave background-frame recession velocity of 7308+/-150km/s, we constrain the Hubble constant to H_0_=81.0_-6.9_^+7.4^(stat.)+/-1.4(sys.)km/s/Mpc.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/464/3882
- Title:
- Mergers and galaxy-galaxy interactions
- Short Name:
- J/MNRAS/464/3882
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We use the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to confirm a connection between dust-obscured active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and galaxy merging. Using a new, volume-limited (z<=0.08) catalogue of visually selected major mergers and galaxy-galaxy interactions from the SDSS, with stellar masses above 2x10^10^M_{sun}_, we find that major mergers (interactions) are 5-17 (3-5) times more likely to have red [3.4]-[4.6] colours associated with dust-obscured or 'dusty' AGNs, compared to non-merging galaxies with similar masses. Using published fibre spectral diagnostics, we map the [3.4]-[4.6] versus [4.6]-[12] colours of different emission-line galaxies and find that one-quarter of Seyferts have colours indicative of a dusty AGN. We find that AGNs are five times more likely to be obscured when hosted by a merging galaxy, half of AGNs hosted by a merger are dusty, and we find no enhanced frequency of optical AGNs in merging over non-merging galaxies. We conclude that undetected AGNs missed at shorter wavelengths are at the heart of the ongoing AGN-merger connection debate. The vast majority of mergers hosting dusty AGNs are star forming and located at the centres of M_halo_<10^13^Mc1l_{sun}_ groups. Assuming plausibly short-duration dusty-AGN phases, we speculate that a large fraction of gas-rich mergers experience a brief obscured AGN phase, in agreement with the strong connection between central star formation and black hole growth seen in merger simulations.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/AJ/148/137
- Title:
- Merging galaxies in COSMOS to z~1
- Short Name:
- J/AJ/148/137
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- The role of major mergers in galaxy and black hole formation is not well-constrained. To help address this, we develop an automated method to identify late-stage galaxy mergers before coalescence of the galactic cores. The resulting sample of mergers is distinct from those obtained using pair-finding and morphological indicators. Our method relies on median-filtering of high-resolution images to distinguish two concentrated galaxy nuclei at small separations. This method does not rely on low surface brightness features to identify mergers, and is therefore reliable to high redshift. Using mock images, we derive statistical contamination and incompleteness corrections for the fraction of late-stage mergers. The mock images show that our method returns an uncontaminated (<10%) sample of mergers with projected separations between 2.2 and 8kpc out to z~1. We apply our new method to a magnitude-limited (m_FW814_<23) sample of 44164 galaxies from the COSMOS HST/ACS catalog. Using a mass-complete sample with log M_{star}_/M_{sun}_>10.6 and 0.25<z<=1.00, we find ~5% of systems are late-stage mergers. Correcting for incompleteness and contamination, the fractional merger rate increases strongly with redshift as {\bf R}_merge_\propto(1+z)^3.8+/-0.9^, in agreement both with earlier studies and with dark matter halo merger rates. Separating the sample into star-forming and quiescent galaxies shows that the merger rate for star-forming galaxies increases strongly with redshift, (1+z)^4.5+/-1.3^, while the merger rate for quiescent galaxies is consistent with no evolution, (1+z)^1.1+/-1.2^. The merger rate also becomes steeper with decreasing stellar mass. Limiting our sample to galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts from zCOSMOS, we find that the star formation rates and X-ray selected active galactic nucleus (AGN) activity in likely late-stage mergers are higher by factors of ~2 relative to those of a control sample. Combining our sample with more widely separated pairs, we find that 8+/-5% of star formation and 20+/-8% of AGN activity are triggered by close encounters (<143kpc) or mergers, providing additional evidence that major mergers are not the only channels for star formation and black hole growth.
465. MEXSAS catalogue
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/593/A55
- Title:
- MEXSAS catalogue
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/593/A55
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Most investigations of the X-ray variability of active galactic nuclei (AGN) have been concentrated on the detailed analyses of individual, nearby sources. A relatively small number of studies have treated the ensemble behaviour of the more general AGN population in wider regions of the luminosity-redshift plane. We want to determine the ensemble variability properties of a rich AGN sample, called Multi-Epoch XMM Serendipitous AGN Sample (MEXSAS), extracted from the fifth release of the XMM-Newton Serendipitous Source Catalogue (XMMSSC-DR5), with redshift between 0.1 and 5, and X-ray luminosities in the 0.5-4.5keV band between 10^42^ and 10^47^erg/s. We urge caution on the use of the normalised excess variance (NXS), noting that it may lead to underestimate variability if used improperly. We use the structure function (SF), updating our previous analysis for a smaller sample. We propose a correction to the NXS variability estimator, accounting for the light curve duration in the rest frame on the basis of the knowledge of the variability behaviour gained by SF studies. We find an ensemble increase of the X-ray variability with the rest-frame time lag tau, given by tau^0.12^. We confirm an inverse dependence on the X-ray luminosity, approximately as L_X^-0.19^. We analyse the SF in different X-ray bands, finding a dependence of the variability on the frequency as nu^-0.15^, corresponding to a softer when brighter trend. In turn, this dependence allows us to parametrically correct the variability estimated in observer-frame bands to that in the rest frame, resulting in a moderate shift upwards (V-correction). Ensemble X-ray variability of AGNs is best described by the structure function. An improper use of the normalised excess variance may lead to an underestimate of the intrinsic variability, so that appropriate corrections to the data or the models must be applied to prevent these effects.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJS/255/28
- Title:
- ~420MHz uGMRT obs. of MIR selected radio-loud AGN
- Short Name:
- J/ApJS/255/28
- Date:
- 11 Mar 2022
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present results from a spectroscopically blind search for associated and intervening HI 21cm and OH 18cm absorption lines toward 88 active galactic nuclei (AGN) at 2<z<5 using the uGMRT. The sample of AGN with 1.4GHz spectral luminosity in the range 10^27-29.3^W/Hz is selected using mid-infrared colors and closely resembles the distribution of the underlying quasar population. The search for associated or proximate absorption, defined to be within 3000km/s of the AGN redshift, led to one HI 21cm absorption detection (M1540-1453; z_abs_=2.1139). This is only the fourth known absorption at z>2. The detection rate (1.6_-1.4_^+3.8^%) suggests a low covering factor of the cold neutral medium (CNM; T~100K) associated with these powerful AGN. The intervening absorption line search, with a sensitivity to detect the CNM in damped Ly{alpha} systems (DLAs), has comoving absorption path lengths of {Delta}X=130.1 and 167.7 for HI and OH, respectively. The corresponding number of absorbers per unit comoving path length are <=0.014 and <=0.011, respectively. The former is at least 4.5 times lower than that of DLAs and consistent with the CNM cross section estimated using H_2_ and CI absorbers at z>2. Our AGN sample is optically fainter compared to the quasars used to search for DLAs in the past. In our optical spectra obtained using SALT and NOT, we detect five intervening (redshift path ~9.3) and two proximate DLAs. This is slightly excessive compared to the statistics based on optically selected quasars. The nondetection of HI 21cm absorption from these DLAs suggests a small CNM covering fraction around galaxies at z>2.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/553/A53
- Title:
- Microlensing maps for a cusp configuration
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/553/A53
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We provide the microlensing maps generated to study microlensing in the mid-infrared range for a cusp-configuration lensed AGN. The maps provided correspond to images which are respectively saddle-point and minimum of the arrival time surface. We also provide simulated images of sources with a disc-like brightness profile or a ring-like brightness profile corresponding to an accretion disc or a torus brightness distribution. These source profiles should be convolved with microlensing maps of the same spatial resolution to simulate microlensing of the corresponding source and generate probability density function (PDF) of microlensing similar to those shown in Figures 3,4,5,8. These maps can also be used to generate synthetic microlensing lightcurves (Figure 9) or derive PDF for the Rcusp relation (Figure 10).
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/418/465
- Title:
- Mid-infrared and hard X-ray emission in AGN
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/418/465
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We use mid-infrared spectral decomposition to separate the 6{mu}m mid-infrared AGN continuum from the host emission in the ISO low resolution spectra of 71 active galaxies and compare the results to observed and intrinsic 2-10keV hard X-ray fluxes from the literature.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/697/506
- Title:
- Mid-infrared galaxy luminosity function from AGN
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/697/506
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present galaxy luminosity functions at 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, and 8.0um measured by combining photometry from the IRAC Shallow Survey with redshifts from the AGN and Galaxy Evolution Survey (AGES) of the NOAO Deep Wide-Field Survey Bootes field. The well defined IRAC samples contain 3800-5800 galaxies for the 3.6-8.0um bands with spectroscopic redshifts and z<0.6. We obtained relatively complete luminosity functions in the local redshift bin of z<0.2 for all four IRAC channels that are well fitted by Schechter functions.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/454/766
- Title:
- Mid-infrared-X-ray correlation for local AGNs
- Short Name:
- J/MNRAS/454/766
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present an updated mid-infrared (MIR) versus X-ray correlation for the local active galactic nuclei (AGN) population based on the high angular resolution 12 and 18{mu}m continuum fluxes from the AGN subarcsecond MIR atlas and 2-10 keV and 14-195 keV data collected from the literature. We isolate a sample of 152 objects with reliable AGN nature and multi-epoch X-ray data and minimal MIR contribution from star formation. Although the sample is not homogeneous or complete, we show that our results are unlikely to be affected by significant biases. The MIR-X-ray correlation is nearly linear and within a factor of 2 independent of the AGN type and the wavebands used. The observed scatter is <0.4 dex. A possible flattening of the correlation slope at the highest luminosities probed (~10^45^ erg/s) towards low MIR luminosities for a given X-ray luminosity is indicated but not significant. Unobscured objects have, on average, an MIR-X-ray ratio that is only <=0.15 dex higher than that of obscured objects. Objects with intermediate X-ray column densities (22<logN_H_<23) actually show the highest MIR-X-ray ratio on average. Radio-loud objects show a higher mean MIR-X-ray ratio at low luminosities while the ratio is lower than average at high luminosities. This may be explained by synchrotron emission from the jet contributing to the MIR at low luminosities and additional X-ray emission at high luminosities. True Seyfert 2 candidates do not show any deviation from the general behaviour suggesting that they possess a dusty obscurer as in other AGN. Double AGN also do not deviate. Finally, we show that the MIR-X-ray correlation can be used to investigate the AGN nature of uncertain objects. Specifically, we give equations that allow us to determine the intrinsic 2-10 keV luminosities and column densities for objects with complex X-ray properties to within 0.34 dex. These techniques are applied to the uncertain objects of the remaining AGN MIR atlas, demonstrating the usefulness of the MIR-X-ray correlation as an empirical tool.
