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Title: Nuclear star formation activity and black hole accretion in nearby Seyfert galaxies

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, M-dot {sub BH}) 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 (8-13 μm) 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 11.3 μm polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission in the vicinity of these AGN, and we used this feature as a proxy for the SFR. We detected the 11.3 μm 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 22 M {sub ☉} yr{sup –1}more » kpc{sup –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 M-dot {sub BH} and showed that numerical simulations reproduce our observed relation fairly well.« less

Authors:
 [1]; ;  [2]; ; ;  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [8];  [9];  [10]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Centro de Astrobiología, INTA-CSIC, Villafranca del Castillo, E-28850, Madrid (Spain)
  2. Instituto de Física de Cantabria, CSIC-Universidad de Cantabria, E-39005 Santander (Spain)
  3. Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), C/Vía Láctea, E-38205, La Laguna (Spain)
  4. UCSB Department of Physics, Broida Hall 2015H, Santa Barbara, CA (United States)
  5. Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3RH (United Kingdom)
  6. Gemini Observatory, Northern Operations Center, 670 North A'ohoku, HI 96720 (United States)
  7. Spitzer Science Center, 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
  8. Gemini Observatory, Casilla 603, La Serena (Chile)
  9. Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica (INAOE), Aptdo. Postal 51 y 216, 72000 Puebla (Mexico)
  10. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Texas at San Antonio, One UTSA Circle, San Antonio, TX 78249 (United States)
Publication Date:
OSTI Identifier:
22348301
Resource Type:
Journal Article
Journal Name:
Astrophysical Journal
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 780; Journal Issue: 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); Journal ID: ISSN 0004-637X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
79 ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY; BLACK HOLES; CATALOGS; COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION; CORRELATIONS; DENSITY; DISTANCE; EMISSION; GALAXY NUCLEI; LUMINOSITY; POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS; RESOLUTION; SEYFERT GALAXIES; SPECTRA; SPECTROSCOPY; STARS

Citation Formats

Esquej, P., Alonso-Herrero, A., Hernán-Caballero, A., González-Martín, O., Ramos Almeida, C., Rodríguez Espinosa, J. M., Hönig, S. F., Roche, P., Mason, R. E., Díaz-Santos, T., Levenson, N. A., Aretxaga, I., and Packham, C. Nuclear star formation activity and black hole accretion in nearby Seyfert galaxies. United States: N. p., 2014. Web. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/780/1/86.
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Esquej, P., Alonso-Herrero, A., Hernán-Caballero, A., González-Martín, O., Ramos Almeida, C., Rodríguez Espinosa, J. M., Hönig, S. F., Roche, P., Mason, R. E., Díaz-Santos, T., Levenson, N. A., Aretxaga, I., & Packham, C. Nuclear star formation activity and black hole accretion in nearby Seyfert galaxies. United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/780/1/86
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Esquej, P., Alonso-Herrero, A., Hernán-Caballero, A., González-Martín, O., Ramos Almeida, C., Rodríguez Espinosa, J. M., Hönig, S. F., Roche, P., Mason, R. E., Díaz-Santos, T., Levenson, N. A., Aretxaga, I., and Packham, C. 2014. "Nuclear star formation activity and black hole accretion in nearby Seyfert galaxies". United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/780/1/86.
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@article{osti_22348301,
title = {Nuclear star formation activity and black hole accretion in nearby Seyfert galaxies},
author = {Esquej, P. and Alonso-Herrero, A. and Hernán-Caballero, A. and González-Martín, O. and Ramos Almeida, C. and Rodríguez Espinosa, J. M. and Hönig, S. F. and Roche, P. and Mason, R. E. and Díaz-Santos, T. and Levenson, N. A. and Aretxaga, I. and Packham, C.},
abstractNote = {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, M-dot {sub BH}) 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 (8-13 μm) 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 11.3 μm polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission in the vicinity of these AGN, and we used this feature as a proxy for the SFR. We detected the 11.3 μm 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 22 M {sub ☉} yr{sup –1} kpc{sup –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 M-dot {sub BH} and showed that numerical simulations reproduce our observed relation fairly well.},
doi = {10.1088/0004-637X/780/1/86},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/22348301}, journal = {Astrophysical Journal},
issn = {0004-637X},
number = 1,
volume = 780,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2014},
month = {Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2014}
}
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Journal Article:
https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/780/1/86
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