X-rays as the dominant excitation mechanism of [Fe ii] and H2 emission lines in active galaxies
| Autor: | Enrique Perez-Montero, Mónica V. Cardaci, Guillermo F. Hägele, Irapuan Rodrigues, Angela Krabbe, Rogemar A. Riffel, Oli L. Dors |
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| Rok vydání: | 2012 |
| Předmět: |
Physics
Active galactic nucleus Astrophysics::High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena Astronomy and Astrophysics Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics Photoionization Astrophysics Lambda Space and Planetary Science Spectral energy distribution Continuum (set theory) Emission spectrum Spectroscopy Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics Excitation |
| Zdroj: | Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 422:252-260 |
| ISSN: | 0035-8711 |
| DOI: | 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2012.20600.x |
| Popis: | We investigate the excitation mechanisms of near-infrared [Fe ii] and H2 emission lines observed in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs). We built a photoionization model grid considering a two-component continuum, one accounts for the Big Bump component peaking at 1Ryd and another represents the X-ray source that dominates the continuum emission at high energies. Photoionization models considering as ionizing source a spectral energy distribution obtained from photometric data of the Sy 2 Mrk 1066 taken from the literature were considered. Results of these models were compared with a large sample of observational long-slit and Integral field Unit (IFU) spectroscopy data of the nuclear region for a sample of active objects. We found that the correlation between the observational [Fe ii]{\lambda}1.2570 {\mu}m/Pa{\beta} vs. H2{\lambda}2.1218 {\mu}m/Br{\gamma} is well reproduced by our models as well as the relationships that involve the H2 emission line ratios observed in the spectroscopic data.We conclude that the heating by X-rays produced by active nuclei can be considered a common and very important mechanism of excitation of [Fe ii] and H2. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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