A Warped Accretion Disk and Wide-Angle Outflow in the Inner Parsec of the Circinus Galaxy

By L. Greenhill, Roy Booth, S. Ellingsen, J. Herrnstein, D. Jauncey, P. McCulloch, James M. Moran, Ray P. Norris, John E. Reynolds, A. Tzioumis. 2003

262 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We present the first VLBI maps of H2O maser emission (λ1.3 cm) in the nucleus of the Circinus galaxy, constructed from data obtained with the Australia Telescope Long Baseline Array. The maser emission traces a warped, edge-on accretion disk between radii of 0.11 ± 0.02 and ~0.40 pc, as well as a wide-angle outflow that extends up to ~1 pc from the estimated disk center. The disk rotation is close to Keplerian (v ∝ r-0.5), the maximum detected rotation speed is 260 km s-1, and the inferred central mass is (1.7 ± 0.3) × 106 M☉. The outflowing masers are irregularly distributed above and below the disk, with relative outflow velocities up to ~±160 km s-1, projected along the line of sight. The flow probably originates closer than 0.1 pc to the central engine, possibly in an inward extension of the accretion disk, although there is only weak evidence of rotation in the outward-moving material. We observe that the warp of the disk appears to collimate the outflow and to fix the extent of the ionization cone observed on larger angular scales. This study provides the first direct evidence (i.e., through imaging) of dusty, high-density, molecular material in a nuclear outflow less than 1 pc from the central engine of a Seyfert galaxy, as well as the first graphic evidence that warped accretion disks can channel outflows and illumination patterns in active galactic nuclei. We speculate that the same arrangement, which in some ways obviates the need for a geometrically thick, dusty torus, may apply to other type 2 active galactic nuclei.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/1012c4990fa6c87faccca4bdaefe06a661e3fdca

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Citations in the corpus

Determining Inclinations of Active Galactic Nuclei Via Their Narrow-Line Region Kinematics (2012, methodology): “SMBH masses for Seyfert 2s Circinus and NGC 1068 were gathered employing direct, dynamical mass-measurements (Greenhill et al. 2003; Lodato & Bertin 2003).”
REVISITING THE SCALING RELATIONS OF BLACK HOLE MASSES AND HOST GALAXY PROPERTIES (2012, unknown): “References: (1 = Ghez et al. 2008) ; (2 = Gillessen et al. 2009) ; (3 = Dalla Bontà et al. 2009) ; (4 = Greenhill et al. 2003) ; (5 = Cappellari et al. 2002) ; (6 = Verolme et al. 2002) ; (7 = Bender et al. 2005) ; (8 = Krajnović et al. 2009) ; (9 = Schulze & Gebhardt 2011) ; (10 = Bower et al.…”
Resolving the obscuring torus in NGC 1068 with the power of infrared interferometry: revealing the inner funnel of dust (2009, background): “It showsmany of the characteristic attributes of Seyfert II sources, such as narrow and broad emission lines (Oliva et al. 1994, 1998), an ionization cone (Veilleux & Bland-Hawthorn 1997), as well as a 0.4 pc edge-on, warped disk of H2O masers (Greenhill et al. 2003).”
The Star-forming Torus and Stellar Dynamical Black Hole Mass in the Seyfert 1 Nucleus of NGC 3227 (2006, background): “Two particularly well known cases are: NGC4945, for which the bright nuclear emission below ∼10keV is completely blocked, implying an absorbing column of ∼ 5×1024 cm−2 (Iawasawa et al. 1993; Done et al. 1996); and Circinus, for which the absorbing column was estimated to be ∼ 4 × 1024 cm−2 based on ”
TORUS AND ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEUS PROPERTIES OF NEARBY SEYFERT GALAXIES: RESULTS FROM FITTING INFRARED SPECTRAL ENERGY DISTRIBUTIONS AND SPECTROSCOPY (2011, methodology): “One possibility is that because Circinus is the closest galaxy in our sample (distance of 4Mpc), the contamination by extended dusty structures is reduced.”
THREE-DIMENSIONAL INTEGRAL FIELD OBSERVATIONS OF 10 GALACTIC WINDS. I. EXTENDED PHASE (≳10 Myr) OF MASS/ENERGY INJECTION BEFORE THE WIND BLOWS (2010, methodology): “Maser measurements firmly establish the central black hole mass at mBH ≈ 2×106 M (Greenhill et al. 2003a).”
The dust covering factor in active galactic nuclei (2016, background): “From similar considerations in the case of Circinus, a misalignment between the accretion disk and the dusty structure of ≈ 27◦ is inferred (Greenhill et al. 2003; Tristram et al. 2007, 2014).”
The dusty torus in the Circinus galaxy: a dense disk and the torus funnel (2013, methodology): “From the maser observations, Greenhill et al. (2003) deduce that the western side of the warped disk is oriented such that we can see its surface, which is directly illuminated by the accretion disk (see their Fig.”
Coevolution (Or Not) of Supermassive Black Holes and Host Galaxies (2013, background): “Greenhill et al. (2003) measure masers both in outflowing gas and in a well-defined, essentially edge-on accretion disk.”
Starbursts near supermassive black holes: young stars in the Galactic Centre, and gravitational waves in LISA band (2006, background): “We note that in one low-luminosity AGN, in the nucleus of Circinus galaxy, there is a firm evidence of an extended accretion disc (Greenhill et al. 2003). the orbit.”
THE NGC 404 NUCLEUS: STAR CLUSTER AND POSSIBLE INTERMEDIATE-MASS BLACK HOLE (2010, methodology): “…follow-up observations, this BH would be the lowest mass dynamically detected BH at the center of a galaxy, with previous determinations of low mass BHs in M32 (2.5 ± 0.5 × 106 M⊙; Verolme et al. 2002) and Circinus (1.7 ± 0.3 × 106 M⊙; Greenhill et al. 2003) being significantly more massive.”
The Afterglow of Massive Black Hole Coalescence (2004, background): “Geometrically thin molecular disks have been detected in water maser emission in Seyfert galaxies (e.g., Miyoshi et al. 1995; Greenhill et al. 2003).”
AGN Dusty Tori. II. Observational Implications of Clumpiness (2008, background): “Proper-motionmeasurements of outflow masers, especially in Circinus, are a promising method for probing the morphology and kinematics of torus clouds.”
Supermassive Black Holes in Galactic Nuclei: Past, Present and Future Research (2004, methodology): “Greenhill et al. 2003b – 20.”
THE MEGAMASER COSMOLOGY PROJECT. III. ACCURATE MASSES OF SEVEN SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES IN ACTIVE GALAXIES WITH CIRCUMNUCLEAR MEGAMASER DISKS (2010, unknown): “Under the assumption that the observed linewidth of broad Hα or Hβ emission approximates the “intrinsic linewidth”5, we find that for NGC 1068, NGC 2273, NGC 4388 and Circinus, the BH masses at the 1 σ level measured by the virial estimation method agree within a factor of 5 with the megamaser BH ma”