- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/AJ/147/143
- Title:
- MOJAVE. XI. Spectral distributions
- Short Name:
- J/AJ/147/143
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We have obtained milliarcsecond-scale spectral index distributions for a sample of 190 extragalactic radio jets through the Monitoring of Jets in Active Galactic Nuclei with the VLBA Experiments (MOJAVE) project. The sources were observed in 2006 at 8.1, 8.4, 12.1, and 15.4GHz, and we have determined spectral index maps between 8.1 and 15.4GHz to study the four-frequency spectrum in individual jet features. We have performed detailed simulations to study the effects of image alignment and (u, v)-plane coverage on the spectral index maps to verify our results. We use the spectral index maps to study the spectral index evolution along the jet and determine the spectral distributions in different locations of the jets. The core spectral indices are on average flat with a mean value of +0.22+/-0.03 for the sample, while the jet spectrum is in general steep with a mean index of -1.04+/-0.03. A simple power-law fit is often inadequate for the core regions, as expected if the cores are partially self-absorbed. The overall jet spectrum steepens at a rate of about -0.001 to -0.004 per deprojected parsec when moving further out from the core with flat spectrum radio quasars having significantly steeper spectra (mean -1.09+/-0.04) than the BL Lac objects (mean -0.80+/-0.05). However, the spectrum in both types of objects flattens on average by ~0.2 at the locations of the jet components indicating particle acceleration or density enhancements along the jet. The mean spectral index at the component locations of -0.81+/-0.02 corresponds to a power-law index of ~2.6 for the electron energy distribution. We find a significant trend that jet components with linear polarization parallel to the jet (magnetic field perpendicular to the jet) have flatter spectra, as expected for transverse shocks. Compared to quasars, BL Lacs have more jet components with perpendicular magnetic field alignment, which may explain their generally flatter spectra. The overall steepening of the spectra with distance can be explained with radiative losses if the jets are collimating or with the evolution of the high-energy cutoff in the electron spectrum if the jets are conical. This interpretation is supported by a significant correlation with the age of the component and the spectral index, with older components having steeper spectra.
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- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/AJ/146/120
- Title:
- MOJAVE. X. Parsec-scale kinematics of AGNs
- Short Name:
- J/AJ/146/120
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We describe the parsec-scale kinematics of 200 active galactic nucleus (AGN) jets based on 15GHz Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) data obtained between 1994 August 31 and 2011 May 1. We present new VLBA 15 GHz images of these and 59 additional AGNs from the MOJAVE and 2cm Survey programs. Nearly all of the 60 most heavily observed jets show significant changes in their innermost position angle over a 12-16yr interval, ranging from 10{deg} to 150{deg} on the sky, corresponding to intrinsic variations of ~0.5{deg} to ~2{deg}. The BL Lac jets show smaller variations than quasars. Roughly half of the heavily observed jets show systematic position angle trends with time, and 20 show indications of oscillatory behavior. The time spans of the data sets are too short compared to the fitted periods (5-12yr), however, to reliably establish periodicity. The rapid changes and large jumps in position angle seen in many cases suggest that the superluminal AGN jet features occupy only a portion of the entire jet cross section and may be energized portions of thin instability structures within the jet. We have derived vector proper motions for 887 moving features in 200 jets having at least five VLBA epochs. For 557 well-sampled features, there are sufficient data to additionally study possible accelerations. We find that the moving features are generally non-ballistic, with 70% of the well-sampled features showing either significant accelerations or non-radial motions. Inward motions are rare (2% of all features), are slow (<0.1mas/yr), are more prevalent in BL Lac jets, and are typically found within 1mas of the unresolved core feature. There is a general trend of increasing apparent speed with distance down the jet for both radio galaxies and BL Lac objects. In most jets, the speeds of the features cluster around a characteristic value, yet there is a considerable dispersion in the distribution. Orientation variations within the jet cannot fully account for the dispersion, implying that the features have a range of Lorentz factor and/or pattern speed. Very slow pattern speed features are rare, comprising only 4% of the sample, and are more prevalent in radio galaxy and BL Lac jets. We confirm a previously reported upper envelope to the distribution of speed versus beamed luminosity for moving jet features. Below 10^26^W/Hz there is a fall-off in maximum speed with decreasing 15GHz radio luminosity. The general shape of the envelope implies that the most intrinsically powerful AGN jets have a wide range of Lorentz factors up to ~40, while intrinsically weak jets are only mildly relativistic.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/874/43
- Title:
- MOJAVE. XVII. Parsec-scale jet kinematics of AGNs
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/874/43
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present results from a parsec-scale jet kinematics study of 409 bright radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGNs) based on 15GHz Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) data obtained between 1994 August 31 and 2016 December 26 as part of the 2cm VLBA survey and Monitoring Of Jets in Active galactic nuclei with VLBA Experiments (MOJAVE) programs. We tracked 1744 individual bright features in 382 jets over at least 5 epochs. A majority (59%) of the best-sampled jet features showed evidence of accelerated motion at the >3{sigma} level. Although most features within a jet typically have speeds within ~40% of a characteristic median value, we identified 55 features in 42 jets that had unusually slow pattern speeds, nearly all of which lie within 4pc (100pc deprojected) of the core feature. Our results, combined with other speeds from the literature, indicate a strong correlation between apparent jet speed and synchrotron peak frequency, with the highest jet speeds being found only in low-peaked AGNs. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we find best-fit parent population parameters for a complete sample of 174 quasars above 1.5Jy at 15GHz. Acceptable fits are found with a jet population that has a simple unbeamed power-law luminosity function incorporating pure luminosity evolution and a power-law Lorentz factor distribution ranging from 1.25 to 50 with slope -1.4+/-0.2. The parent jets of the brightest radio quasars have a space density of 261+/-19Gpc^-3^ and unbeamed 15GHz luminosities above ~10^24.5^W/Hz, consistent with FRII class radio galaxies.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/862/151
- Title:
- MOJAVE. XVI: parsec-scale AGN jet cores at 15GHz
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/862/151
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present an analysis of the core linear polarization properties of 387 parsec-scale active galactic nuclei (AGNs) jets. Using 15GHz VLBA data, we revisit the conclusions of the first paper in this series with multiepoch measurements and more detailed analysis of a larger AGN sample that spans a broader range of synchrotron peak frequencies. Each AGN has been observed for at least five epochs between 1996 and 2017. We find that BL Lac objects have core electric vector position angles (EVPAs) that tend toward alignment with the local jet direction; compared to flat spectrum radio quasars, their EVPAs are also less variable over time. The AGN cores that are most fractionally polarized and least variable in polarization have EVPAs that are closely aligned with the local jet direction; they also have low variability in EVPA. These results support the popular model of a standing transverse shock at the base of the jet that collimates the jet magnetic field perpendicular to the jet direction, increasing the fractional polarization and leading to greater polarization stability over time. High-synchrotron-peaked BL Lac objects form a low luminosity, low fractional polarization population. The five narrow line Seyfert 1 galaxies in our sample have low fractional polarization and large EVPA-jet misalignments. Although AGNs detected at {gamma}-rays are thought to be more Doppler boosted than nondetected AGNs, we find no significant differences in fractional polarization based on detection by Fermi-LAT; the {gamma}-loud AGNs are, however, more variable in core EVPAs.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJS/234/12
- Title:
- MOJAVE XV. VLBA 15GHz obs. of AGN jets 1996-2016
- Short Name:
- J/ApJS/234/12
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present 5321 mas-resolution total intensity and linear polarization maps of 437 active galactic nuclei (AGNs) obtained with the VLBA at 15GHz as part of the MOJAVE survey, and also from the NRAO data archive. The former is a long-term program to study the structure and evolution of powerful parsec-scale outflows associated with AGNs. The targeted AGNs are drawn from several flux-limited radio and {gamma}-ray samples, and all have correlated VLBA flux densities greater than ~50mJy at 15GHz. Approximately 80% of these AGNs are associated with {gamma}-ray sources detected by the Fermi LAT instrument. The vast majority were observed with the VLBA on 5-15 occasions between 1996 January 19 and 2016 December 26, at intervals ranging from a month to several years, with the most typical sampling interval being six months. A detailed analysis of the linear and circular polarization evolutions of these AGN jets is presented in the other papers in this series.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/869/142
- Title:
- Monitoring AGNs with H{beta} Asymmetry (MAHA). I.
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/869/142
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We have started a long-term reverberation mapping (RM) project using the Wyoming Infrared Observatory 2.3m telescope titled "Monitoring AGNs with H{beta} Asymmetry" (MAHA). The motivations of the project are to explore the geometry and kinematics of the gas responsible for complex H{beta} emission-line profiles, ideally leading to an understanding of the structures and origins of the broad-line region (BLR). Furthermore, such a project provides the opportunity to search for evidence of close binary supermassive black holes. We describe MAHA and report initial results from our first campaign, from 2016 December to 2017 May, highlighting velocity-resolved time lags for four active galactic nuclei (AGNs) with asymmetric H{beta} lines. We find that 3C120, Ark120, and Mrk6 display complex features different from the simple signatures expected for pure outflow, inflow, or a Keplerian disk. While three of the objects have been previously reverberation mapped, including velocity-resolved time lags in the cases of 3C120 and Mrk6, we report a time lag and corresponding black hole mass measurement for SBS1518+593 for the first time. Furthermore, SBS1518+593, the least asymmetric of the four, does show velocity-resolved time lags characteristic of a Keplerian disk or virialized motion more generally. Also, the velocity-resolved time lags of 3C120 have significantly changed since previously observed, indicating an evolution of its BLR structure. Future analyses of the data for these objects and others in MAHA will explore the full diversity of H{beta} lines and the physics of AGN BLRs.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/AJ/140/533
- Title:
- Morphologies of selected AGN
- Short Name:
- J/AJ/140/533
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We investigate the optical morphologies of candidate active galaxies identified at radio, X-ray, and mid-infrared wavelengths. We use the Advanced Camera for Surveys General Catalog (ACS-GC) to identify 372, 1360, and 1238 active galactic nucleus (AGN) host galaxies from Very Large Array, XMM-Newton, and Spitzer Space Telescope observations of the COSMOS field, respectively. We investigate both quantitative (GALFIT) and qualitative (visual) morphologies of these AGN host galaxies, split by brightness in their selection band.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/AJ/146/151
- Title:
- Morphology catalog of nearby galaxies from SDSS DR7
- Short Name:
- J/AJ/146/151
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present the statistical properties of a volume-limited sample of 7429 nearby (z=0.033-0.044) galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7. Our database includes morphology distribution as well as the structural and spectroscopic properties of each morphology type based on the recent remeasurements of spectral line strengths by Oh and collaborators. Our database does not include galaxies that are apparently smaller and flatter because morphology classification of them turned out to be difficult. Our statistics confirmed the up-to-date knowledge of galaxy populations, e.g., correlations between morphology and line strengths as well as the derived ages. We hope that this database will be useful as a reference.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/419/687
- Title:
- Morphology of luminous radio-loud AGN
- Short Name:
- J/MNRAS/419/687
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present the results of a comparison between the optical morphologies of a complete sample of 46 southern 2Jy radio galaxies at intermediate redshifts (0.05<z<0.7) and those of two control samples of quiescent early-type galaxies: 55 ellipticals at redshifts z<=0.01 from the Observations of Bright Ellipticals at Yale (OBEY) survey, and 107 early-type galaxies at redshifts 0.2<z<0.7 in the Extended Groth Strip (EGS). Based on these comparisons, we discuss the role of galaxy interactions in the triggering of powerful radio galaxies (PRGs). We find that a significant fraction of quiescent ellipticals at low and intermediate redshifts show evidence for disturbed morphologies at relatively high surface brightness levels, which are likely the result of past or on-going galaxy interactions. However, the morphological features detected in the galaxy hosts of the PRGs (e.g. tidal tails, shells, bridges, etc.) are up to 2mag brighter than those present in their quiescent counterparts. Indeed, if we consider the same surface brightness limits, the fraction of disturbed morphologies is considerably smaller in the quiescent population (53% at z<0.2 and 48% at 0.2<=z<0.7) than in the PRGs (93% at z<0.2 and 95% at 0.2<=z<0.7 considering strong-line radio galaxies only). This supports a scenario in which PRGs represent a fleeting active phase of a subset of the elliptical galaxies that have recently undergone mergers/interactions. However, we demonstrate that only a small proportion (<~20%) of disturbed early-type galaxies are capable of hosting powerful radio sources.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/698/1682
- Title:
- Most luminous dusty galaxies
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/698/1682
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- A summary of mid-infrared continuum luminosities arising from dust is given for very luminous galaxies, L_IR_>10^12^L_{sun}_, with 0.005<z<3.2 containing active galactic nuclei (AGNs), including 115 obscured AGNs and 60 unobscured (type 1) AGNs. All sources have been observed with the Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph. Obscured AGNs are defined as having optical depth {tau}>0.7 in the 9.7um silicate absorption feature (i.e., half of the continuum is absorbed) and having equivalent width of the 6.2um polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon feature <0.1um (to avoid sources with a significant starburst component). Unobscured AGNs are defined as those that show silicate in emission. Luminosity {nu}L_{nu}_(8um) for the most luminous obscured AGNs is found to scale as (1+z)^2.6^ to z=2.8. For unobscured AGNs, the scaling with redshift is similar, but luminosities {nu}L_{nu}_(8um) are approximately three times greater for the most luminous sources. Using both obscured and unobscured AGNs having total infrared fluxes from the Infrared Astronomical Satellite, empirical relations are found between {nu}L_{nu}_(8um) and L_IR_.
