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Quasars

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Articles 1 - 30 of 89

Full-Text Articles in Astrophysics and Astronomy

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (Gama): Low-Redshift Quasars And Inactive Galaxies Have Similar Neighbors, Maria B. Stone, Clare F. Wethers, Roberto De Propris, Jari Kotilainen, Nischal Acharya, Benne W. Holwerda, Jonathan Loveday, Steven Phillipps Apr 2023

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (Gama): Low-Redshift Quasars And Inactive Galaxies Have Similar Neighbors, Maria B. Stone, Clare F. Wethers, Roberto De Propris, Jari Kotilainen, Nischal Acharya, Benne W. Holwerda, Jonathan Loveday, Steven Phillipps

Faculty Scholarship

We explore the properties of galaxies in the proximity (within a ∼2 Mpc radius sphere) of Type I quasars at 0.1 <z <0.35, to check whether and how an active galaxy influences the properties of its neighbors. We further compare these with the properties of neighbors around inactive galaxies of the same mass and redshift within the same volume of space, using the Galaxy and Mass Assembly spectroscopic survey. Our observations reveal no significant difference in properties such as the number of neighbors, morphologies, stellar mass, star formation rates, and star formation history between the neighbors of quasars and those of the comparison sample. This implies that quasar activity in a host galaxy does not significantly affect its neighbors (e.g., via interactions with the jets). Our results suggest that quasar host galaxies do not strongly differ from the average galaxy within the specified mass and redshift range. Additionally, the implication of the relatively minor importance of the environmental effect on and from quasars is that nuclear activity is more likely triggered by internal and secular processes.


The Physical Properties Of Low-Redshift Felobal Quasars. Iii. The Location And Geometry Of The Outflows, Hyunseop Choi, Karen M. Leighly, Collin Dabbieri, Donald M. Terndrup, Sarah C. Gallagher, Gordon T. Richards Sep 2022

The Physical Properties Of Low-Redshift Felobal Quasars. Iii. The Location And Geometry Of The Outflows, Hyunseop Choi, Karen M. Leighly, Collin Dabbieri, Donald M. Terndrup, Sarah C. Gallagher, Gordon T. Richards

Physics and Astronomy Publications

We present continued analysis of a sample of low-redshift iron low-ionization broad-absorption-line quasars (FeLoBALQs). Choi et al. presented SimBAL spectral analysis of broad-absorption-line (BAL) outflows in 50 objects. Leighly et al. analyzed the optical emission lines of 30 of those 50 objects and found that they are characterized by either a high accretion rate (L Bol/L Edd > 0.3) or low accretion rate (0.03 < L Bol/L Edd < 0.3). We report that the outflow velocity is inversely correlated with the BAL location among the high-accretion-rate objects, with the highest velocities observed in parsec-scale outflows. In contrast, the low-Eddington-ratio objects showed the opposite trend. We confirmed the known relationship between the outflow velocity and L Bol/L Edd and found that the scatter plausibly originates in the force multiplier (launch radius) in the low(high)-accretion-rate objects. A log volume filling factor between −6 and −4 was found in most outflows but was as high as −1 for low-velocity compact outflows. We investigated the relationship between the observed [O iii] emission and that predicted from the BAL gas. We found that these could be reconciled if the emission-line covering fraction depends on the Seyfert type and BAL location. The difference between the predicted and observed [O iii] luminosity is correlated with the outflow velocity, suggesting that [O iii] emission in high-Eddington-ratio objects may be broad and hidden under Fe ii emission. We suggest that the physical differences in the outflow properties as a function of location in the quasar and accretion rate point to different formation, acceleration, and confinement mechanisms for the two FeLoBALQ types.


Electromagnetic Detectability Of Binary Supermassive Black Holes, Kaylee Grace May 2022

Electromagnetic Detectability Of Binary Supermassive Black Holes, Kaylee Grace

Honors Scholar Theses

Supermassive black hole (SMBH) binaries can be produced by galaxy mergers and are important sources of gravitational waves. Although several binary candidates have been identified in previous work, none have yet been fully confirmed. These pairs are difficult to detect, since single accreting SMBHs can have pseudo-periodic lightcurves due to stochastic noise that can mimic the signature of binary SMBHs. The aforementioned lightcurves are the detections we classify as ”false-positive.” The Vera Rubin Observatory (VRO) will be a powerful new tool for detecting binary SMBHs. We determine the false-positive binary detection rate for VRO by attempting to recover sinusoidal binary …


Galaxy And Mass Assembly (Gama): The Weak Environmental Dependence Of Quasar Activity At 0.1 < Z < 0.35, Clare F. Wethers, Nischal Acharya, Roberto De Propris, Jari Kotilainen, Ivan K. Baldry, Sarah Brough, Simon P. Driver, Alister W. Graham, Benne Holwerda, Andrew M. Hopkins, Angel R. López-Sánchez, Jonathan Loveday, Steven Phillipps, Kevin A. Pimbblet, Edward Taylor, Lingyu Wang, Angus H. Wright Apr 2022

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (Gama): The Weak Environmental Dependence Of Quasar Activity At 0.1 < Z < 0.35, Clare F. Wethers, Nischal Acharya, Roberto De Propris, Jari Kotilainen, Ivan K. Baldry, Sarah Brough, Simon P. Driver, Alister W. Graham, Benne Holwerda, Andrew M. Hopkins, Angel R. López-Sánchez, Jonathan Loveday, Steven Phillipps, Kevin A. Pimbblet, Edward Taylor, Lingyu Wang, Angus H. Wright

Faculty Scholarship

Understanding the connection between nuclear activity and galaxy environment remains critical in constraining models of galaxy evolution. By exploiting the extensive cataloged data from the Galaxy and Mass Assembly survey, we identify a representative sample of 205 quasars at 0.1 < z < 0.35 and establish a comparison sample of galaxies, closely matched to the quasar sample in terms of both stellar mass and redshift. On scales <1 Mpc, the galaxy number counts and group membership of quasars appear entirely consistent with those of the matched galaxy sample. Despite this, we find that quasars are ∼1.5 times more likely to be classified as the group center, indicating a potential link between quasar activity and cold gas flows or galaxy interactions associated with rich group environments. On scales of ∼a few Mpc, the clustering strengths of both samples are statistically consistent, and beyond 10 Mpc, we find no evidence that quasars trace large-scale structures any more than the galaxy control sample. Both populations are found to prefer intermediate-density sheets and filaments to either very high-density environments or very low-density environments. This weak dependence of quasar activity on galaxy environment supports a paradigm in which quasars represent a phase in the lifetime of all massive galaxies and in which secular processes and a group-centric location are the dominant triggers of quasars at low redshift.


Agn Jets And A Fanciful Trio Of Black Holes In The Abell 85 Brightest Cluster Galaxy, Juan P. Madrid Jan 2021

Agn Jets And A Fanciful Trio Of Black Holes In The Abell 85 Brightest Cluster Galaxy, Juan P. Madrid

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

A new radio map of the Abell 85 Brightest Cluster Galaxy (BCG) was obtained with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array. With a resolution of 002, this radio image shows two kiloparsec-scale bipolar active galactic nucleus jets emanating from the active galactic nucleus of the A85 BCG. The galaxy core appears as a single entity on the new radio map. It has been assumed that the A85 BCG contained a binary black hole in its core. However, Chandra X-ray data and the new high-resolution radio map show no evidence that the A85 BCG harbors a binary black hole. The …


Extreme Ultraviolet Quasar Colours From Galex Observations Of The Sdss Dr14q Catalogue, Daniel E. Vanden Berk, Sarah C. Wesolowski, Mary J. Yeckley, Joseph M. Marcinik, Jean M. Quashnock, Lawrence M. Machia, Jian Wu Jan 2020

Extreme Ultraviolet Quasar Colours From Galex Observations Of The Sdss Dr14q Catalogue, Daniel E. Vanden Berk, Sarah C. Wesolowski, Mary J. Yeckley, Joseph M. Marcinik, Jean M. Quashnock, Lawrence M. Machia, Jian Wu

Computer Science Faculty Publications

The rest-frame far to extreme ultraviolet (UV) colour–redshift relationship has been constructed from data on over 480,000 quasars carefully cross-matched between SDSS Data Release 14 and the final GALEX photometric catalogue. UV matching and detection probabilities are given for all the quasars, including dependencies on separation, optical brightness, and redshift. Detection limits are also provided for all objects. The UV colour distributions are skewed redward at virtually all redshifts, especially when detection limits are accounted for. The median GALEX far-UV minus near-UV (FUV − NUV) colour–redshift relation is reliably determined up to z ≈ 2.8, corresponding to rest-frame wavelengths as …


Preparing A Database Of Extremely High Velocity Outflows In Quasars, Griffin Kowash, Carla P. Quintero, Sean S. Haas, Paola Rodriguez Hidalgo Sep 2019

Preparing A Database Of Extremely High Velocity Outflows In Quasars, Griffin Kowash, Carla P. Quintero, Sean S. Haas, Paola Rodriguez Hidalgo

IdeaFest: Interdisciplinary Journal of Creative Works and Research from Cal Poly Humboldt

No abstract provided.


Waveband Luminosity Correlations In Flux-Limited Multiwavelength Data, Jack Singal, V. Petrosian, Sami Malik, Jibran Haider Jan 2019

Waveband Luminosity Correlations In Flux-Limited Multiwavelength Data, Jack Singal, V. Petrosian, Sami Malik, Jibran Haider

Physics Faculty Publications

We explore the general question of correlations among different waveband luminosities in a flux-limited multiband observational data set. Such correlations, often observed for astronomical sources, may be either intrinsic or induced by the redshift evolution of the luminosities and the data truncation due to the flux limits. We first address this question analytically. We then use simulated flux-limited data with three different known intrinsic luminosity correlations and prescribed luminosity functions and evolution similar to the ones expected for quasars. We explore how the intrinsic nature of luminosity correlations can be deduced, including exploring the efficacy of partial correlation analysis with …


Studying The Potential Of The [Oii] Emission Line As A Surrogate For Stellar Velocity Dispersion In Active Galactic Nuclei, Edward F. Donohue Nov 2018

Studying The Potential Of The [Oii] Emission Line As A Surrogate For Stellar Velocity Dispersion In Active Galactic Nuclei, Edward F. Donohue

Physics

We study the emission profiles of 80 active galaxies to find a surrogate for stellar velocity dispersion. We focus on the width of the emission line of once ionized oxygen, [OII], and compare our results to previous work that used [OIII]. In previous research, [OIII] was found to be a good candidate for a surrogate for stellar velocity dispersion, but analysis of the line was complicated by the presence of wings caused by gas infall and outflow in the region. Emission lines with lower ionization levels, like [OII], are known to have less artificial line-broadening from wings. The study of …


Nitrogen-To-Oxygen Abundance Ratio Variation In Quiescent Galaxies, Renbin Yan Aug 2018

Nitrogen-To-Oxygen Abundance Ratio Variation In Quiescent Galaxies, Renbin Yan

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

For the first time, we establish a gas-phase abundance pattern calibration for quiescent galaxies using optical emission lines. Quiescent galaxies have warm ionized gas showing line ratios similar to low-ionization nuclear emission line regions. The ionization mechanism for the gas is still an unsettled puzzle. Despite the uncertainty in the ionization mechanism, we argue that we can still infer certain gas-phase abundance pattern from first principles. We show that the relative trend in N/O abundance can still be reliably measured based on [N II] λλ6548,6583/[O II] λλ3726,3729 and a direct measurement of the electron temperature. We construct a composite direct …


Shocks Or Photoionization: Direct Temperature Measurements Of The Low-Ionization Gas In Quiescent Galaxies, Renbin Yan Aug 2018

Shocks Or Photoionization: Direct Temperature Measurements Of The Low-Ionization Gas In Quiescent Galaxies, Renbin Yan

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

The ionization mechanism of the low-ionization gas in quiescent red-sequence galaxies has been a long-standing puzzle. Direct temperature measurements would put strong constraints on this issue. We carefully selected a sample of quiescent red-sequence galaxies from Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We bin them into three bins with different [N II]/H α and [N II]/[O II] ratios, and we measure the temperature-sensitive [O III] λ4363, [N II] λ5755, [S II] λλ4068, 4076, and [O II] λλ7320, 7330 lines in the stacked spectra. The [S II] doublet ratios indicate the line-emitting gas is in the low-density regime (∼10–200 cm−3). We …


How Many Quasars Have Extremely High Velocity Outflows?, Carla P. Quintero, Sean S. Haas, Paola Rodriguez Hidalgo Jun 2018

How Many Quasars Have Extremely High Velocity Outflows?, Carla P. Quintero, Sean S. Haas, Paola Rodriguez Hidalgo

IdeaFest: Interdisciplinary Journal of Creative Works and Research from Cal Poly Humboldt

No abstract provided.


Direct Collapse To Supermassive Black Hole Seeds With Radiation Transfer: Cosmological Haloes, Kazem Ardaneh, Yang Luo, Isaac Shlosman, Kentaro Nagamine, John H. Wise, Michael C. Begelman Jun 2018

Direct Collapse To Supermassive Black Hole Seeds With Radiation Transfer: Cosmological Haloes, Kazem Ardaneh, Yang Luo, Isaac Shlosman, Kentaro Nagamine, John H. Wise, Michael C. Begelman

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We have modelled direct collapse of a primordial gas within dark matter haloes in the presence of radiative transfer, in high-resolution zoom-in simulations in a cosmological framework, down to the formation of the photosphere and the central object. Radiative transfer has been implemented in the flux-limited diffusion (FLD) approximation. Adiabatic models were run for comparison. We find that (a) the FLD flow forms an irregular central structure and does not exhibit fragmentation, contrary to adiabatic flow which forms a thick disc, driving a pair of spiral shocks, subject to Kelvin–Helmholtz shear instability forming fragments; (b) the …


Intermediate-Line Emission In Agns: The Effect Of Prescription Of The Gas Density, T. P. Adhikari, K. Hryniewicz, A. Różańska, B. Czerny, Gary J. Ferland Mar 2018

Intermediate-Line Emission In Agns: The Effect Of Prescription Of The Gas Density, T. P. Adhikari, K. Hryniewicz, A. Różańska, B. Czerny, Gary J. Ferland

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

The requirement of an intermediate-line component in the recently observed spectra of several active galactic nuclei (AGNs) points to the possible existence of a physically separate region between the broad-line region (BLR) and narrow-line region (NLR). In this paper we explore the emission from the intermediate-line region (ILR) by using photoionization simulations of the gas clouds distributed radially from the center of the AGN. The gas clouds span distances typical for the BLR, ILR, and NLR, and the appearance of dust at the sublimation radius is fully taken into account in our model. The structure of a single cloud is …


Direct Collapse To Supermassive Black Hole Seeds With Radiative Transfer: Isolated Halos, Yang Luo, Kazem Ardaneh, Isaac Shlosman, Kentaro Nagamine, John H. Wise, Mitchell C. Begelman Feb 2018

Direct Collapse To Supermassive Black Hole Seeds With Radiative Transfer: Isolated Halos, Yang Luo, Kazem Ardaneh, Isaac Shlosman, Kentaro Nagamine, John H. Wise, Mitchell C. Begelman

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

Direct collapse within dark matter haloes is a promising path to form supermassive black hole seeds at high redshifts. The outer part of this collapse remains optically thin. However, the innermost region of the collapse is expected to become optically thick and requires to follow the radiation field in order to understand its evolution. So far, the adiabatic approximation has been used exclusively for this purpose. We apply radiative transfer in the flux-limited diffusion (FLD) approximation to solve the evolution of coupled gas and radiation for isolated haloes. We find that (1) the photosphere forms at 10−6 pc and …


Luminous And Obscured Quasars And Their Host Galaxies, Agnese Del Moro, David M. Alexander, Franz E. Bauer, Emanuele Daddi, Dale D. Kocevski, Flora Stanley, Daniel H. Mcintosh Jan 2018

Luminous And Obscured Quasars And Their Host Galaxies, Agnese Del Moro, David M. Alexander, Franz E. Bauer, Emanuele Daddi, Dale D. Kocevski, Flora Stanley, Daniel H. Mcintosh

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

The most heavily-obscured, luminous quasars might represent a specific phase of the evolution of the actively accreting supermassive black holes and their host galaxies, possibly related to mergers. We investigated a sample of the most luminous quasars at z ≈ 1 − 3 in the GOODS fields, selected in the mid-infrared band through detailed spectral energy distribution (SED) decomposition. The vast majority of these quasars (~80%) are obscured in the X-ray band and ~30% of them to such an extent, that they are undetected in some of the deepest (2 and 4 Ms) Chandra X-ray data. Although no clear relation …


Atomic Data Revisions For Transitions Relevant To Observations Of Interstellar, Circumgalactic, And Intergalactic Matter, Frances H. Cashman, Varsha P. Kulkarni, Romas Kisielius, Gary J. Ferland, Pavel Bogdanovich May 2017

Atomic Data Revisions For Transitions Relevant To Observations Of Interstellar, Circumgalactic, And Intergalactic Matter, Frances H. Cashman, Varsha P. Kulkarni, Romas Kisielius, Gary J. Ferland, Pavel Bogdanovich

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

Measurements of element abundances in galaxies from astrophysical spectroscopy depend sensitively on the atomic data used. With the goal of making the latest atomic data accessible to the community, we present a compilation of selected atomic data for resonant absorption lines at wavelengths longward of 911.753 Å (the H I Lyman limit), for key heavy elements (heavier than atomic number 5) of astrophysical interest. In particular, we focus on the transitions of those ions that have been observed in the Milky Way interstellar medium (ISM), the circumgalactic medium (CGM) of the Milky Way and/or other galaxies, and the intergalactic medium …


A Multiwavelength Continuum Characterization Of High-Redshift Broad Absorption Line Quasars, D. Tuccillo, G. Bruni, M. A. Dipompeo, M. S. Brotherton Feb 2017

A Multiwavelength Continuum Characterization Of High-Redshift Broad Absorption Line Quasars, D. Tuccillo, G. Bruni, M. A. Dipompeo, M. S. Brotherton

Dartmouth Scholarship

We present the results of a multiwavelength study of a sample of high-redshift radio-loud (RL) broad absorption line (BAL) quasars. This way, we extend to higher redshift previous studies on the radio properties and broad-band optical colours of these objects. We have selected a sample of 22 RL BAL quasars with 3.6 ≤ z ≤ 4.8 cross-correlating the FIRST radio survey with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Flux densities between 1.25 and 9.5 GHz have been collected with the Jansky Very Large Array and Effelsberg-100 m telescopes for 15 BAL and 14 non-BAL quasars used as a comparison sample. …


The Dusty Tori Of Nearby Qsos As Constrained By High-Resolution Mid-Ir Observations, M. Martínez-Paredes, I. Aretxaga, A. Alonso-Herrero, O. González-Martín, E. Lopéz-Rodríguez, C. Ramos Almeida, A. Asensio Ramos, T. Diaz Santos, Moshe Elitzur, P. Esquej, A. Hernán-Caballero, K. Ichikawa, R. Nikutta, C. Packham, M. Pereira-Santaella, C. Telesco Feb 2017

The Dusty Tori Of Nearby Qsos As Constrained By High-Resolution Mid-Ir Observations, M. Martínez-Paredes, I. Aretxaga, A. Alonso-Herrero, O. González-Martín, E. Lopéz-Rodríguez, C. Ramos Almeida, A. Asensio Ramos, T. Diaz Santos, Moshe Elitzur, P. Esquej, A. Hernán-Caballero, K. Ichikawa, R. Nikutta, C. Packham, M. Pereira-Santaella, C. Telesco

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We present mid-infrared (MIR; 7.5–13.5 μm) imaging and spectroscopy observations obtained with the CanariCam (CC) instrument on the 10.4-m Gran Telescopio CANARIAS for a sample of 20 nearby, MIR bright and X-ray luminous quasi-stellar objects (QSOs). We find that for the majority of QSOs the MIR emission is unresolved at angular scales ∼0.3 arcsec, corresponding to physical scales ≲ 600 pc. We find that the higher-spatial resolution CC spectra have similar shapes to those obtained with Spitzer/IRS, and hence we can assume that the spectra are not heavily contaminated by extended emission in the host galaxy. We thus take …


Data Mining By Grid Computing In The Search For Extrasolar Planets, Oisin Creaner [Thesis] Jan 2017

Data Mining By Grid Computing In The Search For Extrasolar Planets, Oisin Creaner [Thesis]

Doctoral

A system is presented here to provide improved precision in ensemble differential photometry. This is achieved by using the power of grid computing to analyse astronomical catalogues. This produces new catalogues of optimised pointings for each star, which maximise the number and quality of reference stars available. Astronomical phenomena such as exoplanet transits and small-scale structure within quasars may be observed by means of millimagnitude photometric variability on the timescale of minutes to hours. Because of atmospheric distortion, ground-based observations of these phenomena require the use of differential photometry whereby the target is compared with one or more reference stars. …


A Scuba-2 Survey Of Felobal Qsos. Are Felobals In A ‘Transition Phase’ Between Ulirgs And Qsos?, Giulio Violino, Kristen E. K. Coppin, Jason A. Stevens, Duncan Farrah, James E. Geach, Dave M. Alexander, Ryan Hickox Dec 2016

A Scuba-2 Survey Of Felobal Qsos. Are Felobals In A ‘Transition Phase’ Between Ulirgs And Qsos?, Giulio Violino, Kristen E. K. Coppin, Jason A. Stevens, Duncan Farrah, James E. Geach, Dave M. Alexander, Ryan Hickox

Dartmouth Scholarship

It is thought that a class of broad absorption line (BAL) QSOs, characterised by Fe absorption features in their UV spectra (called `FeLoBALs'), could mark a transition stage between the end of an obscured starburst event and a youthful QSO beginning to shed its dust cocoon, where Fe has been injected into the interstellar medium by the starburst. To test this hypothesis we have undertaken deep SCUBA-2 850 μm observations of a sample of 17 FeLoBAL QSOs with 0.89 ≤ z ≤ 2.78 and -23.31 ≤ MB ≤-28.50 to directly detect an excess in the thermal emission of the dust …


The Mid-Infrared Luminosity Evolution And Luminosity Function Of Quasars With Wise And Sdss, Jack Singal Nov 2016

The Mid-Infrared Luminosity Evolution And Luminosity Function Of Quasars With Wise And Sdss, Jack Singal

Physics Faculty Publications

We determine the 22 μm luminosity evolution and luminosity function for quasars from a data set of over 20,000 objects obtained by combining flux-limited Sloan Digital Sky Survey optical and Wide field Infrared Survey Explorer mid-infrared data. We apply methods developed in previous works to access the intrinsic population distributions non-parametrically, taking into account the truncations and correlations inherent in the data. We find that the population of quasars exhibits positive luminosity evolution with redshift in the mid-infrared, but with considerably less mid-infrared evolution than in the optical or radio bands. With the luminosity evolutions accounted for, we determine …


The Intermediate-Line Region In Active Galactic Nuclei, T. P. Adhikari, A. Różańska, B. Czerny, K. Hryniewicz, Gary J. Ferland Oct 2016

The Intermediate-Line Region In Active Galactic Nuclei, T. P. Adhikari, A. Różańska, B. Czerny, K. Hryniewicz, Gary J. Ferland

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We show that the recently observed suppression of the gap between the broad-line region (BLR) and the narrow-line region (NLR) in some active galactic nuclei (AGNs) can be fully explained by an increase of the gas density in the emitting region. Our model predicts the formation of the intermediate-line region (ILR) that is observed in some Seyfert galaxies by the detection of emission lines with intermediate-velocity FWHM ~ 700–1200 km s−1. These lines are believed to be originating from an ILR located somewhere between the BLR and NLR. As was previously proved, the apparent gap is assumed to …


High-Velocity Bipolar Molecular Emission From An Agn Torus, Jack F. Gallimore, Moshe Elitzur, Robert Maiolino, Alessandro Marconi, Christopher P. O'Dea, Dieter Lutz, Stefi A. Baum, Robert Nikutta, C. M. V. Impellizzeri, Richard Davies, Amy E. Kimball, Eleonora Sani Sep 2016

High-Velocity Bipolar Molecular Emission From An Agn Torus, Jack F. Gallimore, Moshe Elitzur, Robert Maiolino, Alessandro Marconi, Christopher P. O'Dea, Dieter Lutz, Stefi A. Baum, Robert Nikutta, C. M. V. Impellizzeri, Richard Davies, Amy E. Kimball, Eleonora Sani

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We have detected in ALMA observations CO J = 6 → 5 emission from the nucleus of the Seyfert galaxy NGC 1068. The low-velocity (up to ±70 km s−1 relative to systemic) CO emission resolves into a 12 × 7 pc structure, roughly aligned with the nuclear radio source. Higher-velocity emission (up to ±400 km s−1) is consistent with a bipolar outflow in a direction nearly perpendicular (≃80°) to the nuclear disk. The position–velocity diagram shows that in addition to the outflow, the velocity field may also contain rotation about the disk axis. These observations provide compelling …


Star Formation In Quasar Hosts And The Origin Of Radio Emission In Radio-Quiet Quasars, Nadia L. Zakamska, Kelly Lampayan, Andreea Petric, Daniel Dicken, Jenny E. Greene, Timothy M. Heckman, Ryan C. Hickox Jul 2016

Star Formation In Quasar Hosts And The Origin Of Radio Emission In Radio-Quiet Quasars, Nadia L. Zakamska, Kelly Lampayan, Andreea Petric, Daniel Dicken, Jenny E. Greene, Timothy M. Heckman, Ryan C. Hickox

Dartmouth Scholarship

Radio emission from radio-quiet quasars may be due to star formation in the quasar host galaxy, to a jet launched by the supermassive black hole, or to relativistic particles accelerated in a wide-angle radiatively-driven outflow. In this paper we examine whether radio emission from radio-quiet quasars is a byproduct of star formation in their hosts. To this end we use infrared spectroscopy and photometry from Spitzer and Herschel to estimate or place upper limits on star formation rates in hosts of ~300 obscured and unobscured quasars at z<1. We find that low-ionization forbidden emission lines such as [NeII] and [NeIII] are likely dominated by quasar ionization and do not provide reliable star formation diagnostics in quasar hosts, while PAH emission features may be suppressed due to the destruction of PAH molecules by the quasar radiation field. While the bolometric luminosities of our sources are dominated by the quasars, the 160 micron fluxes are likely dominated by star formation, but they too should be used with caution. We estimate median star formation rates to be 6-29 Msun/year, with obscured quasars at the high end of this range. This star formation rate is insufficient to explain the observed radio emission from quasars by an order of magnitude, with log(L_radio, observed/L_radio, SF)=0.6-1.3 depending on quasar type and star formation estimator. Although radio-quiet quasars in our sample lie close to the 8-1000 micron infrared / radio correlation characteristic of the star-forming galaxies, both their infrared emission and their radio emission are dominated by the quasar activity, not by the host galaxy.


Ultraviolet Emission Lines Of Si Ii In Quasars—Investigating The "Si Ii Disaster", Sibasish Laha, Francis P. Keenan, Gary J. Ferland, Catherine A. Ramsbottom, Kanti M. Aggarwal Jun 2016

Ultraviolet Emission Lines Of Si Ii In Quasars—Investigating The "Si Ii Disaster", Sibasish Laha, Francis P. Keenan, Gary J. Ferland, Catherine A. Ramsbottom, Kanti M. Aggarwal

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

The observed line intensity ratios of the Si II λ1263 and λ1307 multiplets to that of Si II λ1814 in the broad-line region (BLR) of quasars are both an order of magnitude larger than the theoretical values. This was first pointed out by Baldwin et al., who termed it the "Si II disaster," and it has remained unresolved. We investigate the problem in the light of newly published atomic data for Si II. Specifically, we perform BLR calculations using several different atomic data sets within the CLOUDY modeling code under optically thick quasar cloud conditions. In addition, …


Possible Evolution Of Supermassive Black Holes From Fri Quasars, Matthew I. Kim, Damian J. Christian, David Garofalo, Jaclyn D'Avanzo May 2016

Possible Evolution Of Supermassive Black Holes From Fri Quasars, Matthew I. Kim, Damian J. Christian, David Garofalo, Jaclyn D'Avanzo

Faculty and Research Publications

We explore the question of the rapid buildup of black hole mass in the early universe employing a growing black hole mass-based determination of both jet and disc powers predicted in recent theoretical work on black hole accretion and jet formation. Despite simplified, even artificial assumptions about accretion and mergers, we identify an interesting low probability channel for the growth of one billion solar mass black holes within hundreds of millions of years of the big bang without appealing to super Eddington accretion. This result is made more compelling by the recognition of a connection between this channel and an …


Peering Through The Dust: Nustar Observations Of Two First-2mass Red Quasars, Stephanie M. Lamassa, Angelo Ricarte, Eilat Glikman, C. Megan Urry, Daniel Stern, Tahir Yaqoob, George B. Lansbury, Francesca Civano Mar 2016

Peering Through The Dust: Nustar Observations Of Two First-2mass Red Quasars, Stephanie M. Lamassa, Angelo Ricarte, Eilat Glikman, C. Megan Urry, Daniel Stern, Tahir Yaqoob, George B. Lansbury, Francesca Civano

Dartmouth Scholarship

Some reddened quasars appear to be transitional objects in the merger-induced black hole growth/galaxy evolution paradigm, where a heavily obscured nucleus starts to be unveiled by powerful quasar winds evacuating the surrounding cocoon of dust and gas. Hard X-ray observations are able to peer through this gas and dust, revealing the properties of circumnuclear obscuration. Here, we present NuSTAR and XMM-Newton/Chandra observations of FIRST-2MASS selected red quasars F2M 0830+3759 and F2M 1227+3214. We find that though F2M 0830+3759 is moderately obscured (NH,Z=2.1±0.2×1022 cm−2) and F2M 1227+3214 is mildly absorbed (NH,Z=3.4+0.8−0.7×1021 cm−2 …


Disc Outflows And High-Luminosity True Type 2 Agn, Moshe Elitzur, Hagai Netzer Mar 2016

Disc Outflows And High-Luminosity True Type 2 Agn, Moshe Elitzur, Hagai Netzer

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

The absence of intrinsic broad-line emission has been reported in a number of active galactic nuclei (AGN), including some with high Eddington ratios. Such ‘true type 2 AGN’ are inherent to the disc-wind scenario for the broad-line region: broad-line emission requires a minimal column density, implying a minimal outflow rate and thus a minimal accretion rate. Here we perform a detailed analysis of the consequences of mass conservation in the process of accretion through a central disc. The resulting constraints on luminosity are consistent with all the cases where claimed detections of true type 2 AGN pass stringent criteria, and …


Mid-Infrared Luminous Quasars In The Goods–Herschel Fields: A Large Population Of Heavily Obscured, Compton-Thick Quasars At Z ≈ 2, A. Del Moro, D. M. Alexander, F. E. Bauer, E. Daddi, Dale D. Kocevski, Daniel H. Mcintosh, F. Stanley, W. N. Brandt, D. Elbaz, C. M. Harrison, B. Luo, J. R. Mullaney, Y. Q. Xue Feb 2016

Mid-Infrared Luminous Quasars In The Goods–Herschel Fields: A Large Population Of Heavily Obscured, Compton-Thick Quasars At Z ≈ 2, A. Del Moro, D. M. Alexander, F. E. Bauer, E. Daddi, Dale D. Kocevski, Daniel H. Mcintosh, F. Stanley, W. N. Brandt, D. Elbaz, C. M. Harrison, B. Luo, J. R. Mullaney, Y. Q. Xue

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We present the infrared (IR) and X-ray properties of a sample of 33 mid-IR luminous quasars (νL6 μm ≥ 6 × 1044 erg s−1) at redshift z ≈ 1–3, identified through detailed spectral energy distribution analyses of distant star-forming galaxies, using the deepest IR data from Spitzer and Herschel in the GOODS–Herschel fields. The aim is to constrain the fraction of obscured, and Compton-thick (CT, NH > 1.5 × 1024 cm−2) quasars at the peak era of nuclear and star formation activities. Despite being very bright in the mid-IR band, ≈30 …