Narrow-line region gas kinematics of 24 264 optically selected AGN: the radio connection
By James Mullaney, D. M. Alexander, S. Fine, A. D. Goulding, C. Harrison, R. C. Hickox. 2013
208 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Using a sample of 24 264 optically selected active galactic nuclei (AGNs) from the SDSS DR7 data base, we characterize how the profile of the [O III] λ5007 emission line relates to bolometric luminosity (LAGN), Eddington ratio, radio loudness, radio luminosity (L1.4 GHz) and optical class (i.e. broad/narrow-line Seyfert 1, type 2) to determine what drives the kinematics of this kpc-scale line emitting gas. First, we use spectral stacking to characterize how the average [O III] λ5007 profile changes as a function of these five variables. After accounting for the known correlation between LAGN and L1.4 GHz, we report that L1.4 GHz has the strongest influence on the [O III] λ5007 profile, with AGNs of moderate radio luminosity (L1.4 GHz = 1023–1025 W Hz−1) having the broadest [O III] λ5007 profiles. Conversely, we find only a modest change in the [O III] λ5007 profile with increasing radio loudness and find no significant difference between the [O III] λ5007 profiles of broad- and narrow-line Seyfert 1s. When binned according to Eddington ratio, only the AGNs in our highest bin (i.e. >0.3) show any signs of having broadened [O III] λ5007 profiles, although the small numbers of such extreme AGNs in our sample mean we cannot rule out that other processes (e.g. radio jets) are responsible for this broadening. The [O III] λ5007 profiles of type 1 and type 2 AGNs show the same trends in terms of line width, but type 1 AGNs display a much stronger ‘blue wing’, which we interpret as evidence of outflowing ionized gas. We perform multicomponent fitting to the Hβ, [O III] λλ4959, 5007, [N II] λλ6548, 6584 and Hα lines for all the AGNs in our sample to calculate the proportions of AGNs with broad [O III] λ5007 profiles. The individual fits confirm the results from our stacked spectra; AGNs with L1.4 GHz > 1023 W Hz−1 are roughly five times more likely to have extremely broad [O III] λ5007 lines (full width at half-maximum, FWHMAvg > 1000 km s−1) compared to lower L1.4 GHz AGNs, and the width of the [O III] λ5007 line peaks in moderate-radio-luminosity AGNs (L1.4 GHz ∼ 1024 W Hz−1). Our results are consistent with the most disturbed gas kinematics being induced by compact radio cores (rather than powerful radio jets), although broadened [O III] λ5007 lines are also present, but much rarer, in low-L1.4 GHz systems. Our catalogue of multicomponent fits is freely available as an online resource for statistical studies of the kinematics and luminosities of the narrow- and broad-line AGN regions and the identification of potential targets for follow-up observations at http://sites.google.com/site/sdssalpaka.
Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/29dab9fba4afefb1ed78186aad1fd61b87264d17
How researchers see this paper
The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.
In Astronomy and Astrophysics
Citations in the corpus
- Quasar feedback and the origin of radio emission in radio-quiet quasars (2014, background): “This is also a possibility for our sources and for type 1 quasars (Husemann et al. 2013; Mullaney et al. 2013), especially in light of the fact that radio emission is strongly correlated with line kinematics (Section 4.1).”
- A ∼50,000 M⊙ SOLAR MASS BLACK HOLE IN THE NUCLEUS OF RGG 118 (2015, background): “[OIII] λ5007 is significantly brighter than [SII], and can reveal the presence of wings (Mullaney et al. 2013; Zakamska & Greene 2014).”
- Cold Molecular Outflows in the Local Universe and Their Feedback Effect on Galaxies (2018, background): “The connection appears to be common for what concerns the ionized phase of outflows (Mullaney et al. 2013).”
- Kiloparsec-scale outflows are prevalent among luminous AGN: outflows and feedback in the context of the overall AGN population (2014, methodology): “These conclusions are consistent with Mullaney et al. (2013) who demonstrate that the broadest emission lines are prevalent for AGN with radio luminositie of L1.”
- Massive molecular outflows and evidence for AGN feedback from CO observations (2013, methodology): “…have been used to identify other phases of outflows in active galaxies, both locally (e.g. Rupke & Veilleux 2011, 2013b; Müller-Sánchez et al. 2011; Mullaney et al. 2013; Emonts et al. 2005; Morganti et al. 2003, 2005; Martin 2005; Soto et al. 2012; Rodríguez Zaurín et al. 2013) and at high…”
- EVIDENCE FOR WIDE-SPREAD ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEUS-DRIVEN OUTFLOWS IN THE MOST MASSIVE z ∼ 1–2 STAR-FORMING GALAXIES (2014, result): “Such a large shift between the broad and narrow Hα lines for most or all galaxies is highly unlikely, when compared to local SDSS AGN results (Bonning et al. 2007; Liu et al. 2014; Mullaney et al. 2013).”
- X-shooter reveals powerful outflows in z ∼ 1.5 X-ray selected obscured quasi-stellar objects (2014, methodology): “We found that the objects for which we detect a broad component have FWHM larger than the av- erage value observed in SDSS Type 2 AGN samples at similar observed [OIII] luminosity (Mullaney et al. 2013; Greene et al. 2011, see pinkish-grey and green points in Fig.”
- Impact of supermassive black hole growth on star formation (2017, background): “, outflows of ionised, neutral and molecular gas) have been identified using one-dimensional spectra of AGN host galaxies and are more likely to be associated with host galaxy gas[45, 46, 47, 48].”
- Discovery of extreme [O III] λ5007 Å outflows in high-redshift red quasars (2015, background): “…high velocity dispersions or strong line asymmetries in forbidden lines – especially blue-shifts which arise naturally in dusty winds (Whittle 1985a) – are sufficient evidence of high-velocity extended outflows (Spoon & Holt 2009; Mullaney et al. 2013; Zakamska & Greene 2014; Brusa et al. 2015).”