SIMBAD references

2009ApJ...705.1196T - Astrophys. J., 705, 1196-1205 (2009/November-2)

Emission and absorption properties of low-mass type 2 active galaxies with XMM-Newton.

THORNTON C.E., BARTH A.J., HO L.C. and GREENE J.E.

Abstract (from CDS):

We present XMM-Newton observations of four low-redshift Seyfert galaxies selected to have low host luminosities (Mg> - 20 mag) and small stellar velocity dispersions (σ*<45 km/s), which are among the smallest stellar velocity dispersions found in any active galaxies. These galaxies show weak or no broad optical emission lines and have likely black hole masses ≲106 M. Three out of four objects were detected with >3σ significance in ∼25 ks exposures and two observations had high enough signal-to-noise ratios for rudimentary spectral analysis. We calculate hardness ratios (-0.43 to 0.01) for the three detected objects and use them to estimate photon indices in the range of Γ = 1.1-1.8. Relative to [O III], the type 2 objects are X-ray faint in comparison with Seyfert 1 galaxies, suggesting that the central engines are obscured. We estimate the intrinsic absorption of each object under the assumption that the [O III] emission line luminosities are correlated with the unabsorbed X-ray luminosity. The results are consistent with moderate (NH∼ 1022/cm2) absorption over the Galactic values in three of the four objects, which might explain the non-detection of broad-line emission in optical spectra. One object in our sample, SDSS J110912.40+612346.7, is a near identical type 2 counterpart of the late-type Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 4395. While the two objects have very similar [O III] luminosities, the type 2 object has an X-ray/[O III] flux ratio nearly an order of magnitude lower than NGC 4395. The most plausible explanation for this difference is absorption of the primary X-ray continuum of the type 2 object, providing an indication that obscuration-based unified models of active galaxies can apply even at the lowest luminosities seen among Seyfert nuclei, down to Lbol∼1040-1041 erg/s.

Abstract Copyright:

Journal keyword(s): galaxies: active - galaxies: dwarf - galaxies: nuclei - galaxies: Seyfert - X-rays: galaxies

Simbad objects: 9

goto Full paper

goto View the references in ADS

To bookmark this query, right click on this link: simbad:2009ApJ...705.1196T and select 'bookmark this link' or equivalent in the popup menu