Prof Patrick Roche

Abstract:

Recent theoretical and observational works indicate the presence of a correlation between the star-formation rate (SFR) and active galactic nucleus (AGN) luminosity (and, therefore, the black hole accretion rate, ṀBH) of Seyfert galaxies. This suggests a physical connection between the gas-forming stars on kpc scales and the gas on sub-pc scales that is feeding the black hole. We compiled the largest sample of Seyfert galaxies to date with high angular resolution (∼0.′4-0. ′8) mid-infrared (8-13μm) spectroscopy. The sample includes 29 Seyfert galaxies drawn from the AGN Revised Shapley-Ames catalog. At a median distance of 33 Mpc, our data allow us to probe nuclear regions on scales of∼65 pc (median value).We found no general evidence of suppression of the 11.3μmpolycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission in the vicinity of these AGN, and we used this feature as a proxy for the SFR.We detected the 11.3μm PAH feature in the nuclear spectra of 45% of our sample. The derived nuclear SFRs are, on average, five times lower than those measured in circumnuclear regions of 600 pc in size (median value). However, the projected nuclear SFR densities (median value of 22M⊙ yr-1 kpc-2) are a factor of 20 higher than those measured on circumnuclear scales. This indicates that the SF activity per unit area in the central ∼65 pc region of Seyfert galaxies is much higher than at larger distances from their nuclei. We studied the connection between the nuclear SFR and?ṀBH and showed that numerical simulations reproduce our observed relation fairly well. © 2014. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A.

Abstract:

We present mid-infrared (MIR) 8-13 μm spectroscopy of the nuclear regions of the interacting galaxy Arp 299 (IC 694+NGC 3690) obtained with CanariCam (CC) on the 10.4 m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC). The high angular resolution (∼0.″3-0.″6) of the data allows us to probe nuclear physical scales between 60 and 120 pc, which is a factor of 10 improvement over previous MIR spectroscopic observations of this system. The GTC/CC spectroscopy displays evidence of deeply embedded active galactic nucleus (AGN) activity in both nuclei. The GTC/CC nuclear spectrum of NGC 3690/Arp 299-B1 can be explained as emission from AGN-heated dust in a clumpy torus with both a high covering factor and high extinction along the line of sight. The estimated bolometric luminosity of the AGN in NGC 3690 is 3.2 ± 0.6 × 1044 erg s-1. The nuclear GTC/CC spectrum of IC 694/Arp 299-A shows 11.3 μm polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon emission stemming from a deeply embedded (AV ∼ 24 mag) region of less than 120 pc in size. There is also a continuum-emitting dust component. If associated with the putative AGN in IC 694, we estimate that it would be approximately five times less luminous than the AGN in NGC 3690. The presence of dual AGN activity makes Arp 299 a good example to study such phenomena in the early coalescence phase of interacting galaxies. © 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.