Physics Commons^™

Are There Any Shock-Heated Galaxies?, Gary J. Ferland, Hagai Netzer

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We study the spectroscopic characteristics of low ionization nuclear emission-line regions (Liners) in galaxies, and compare them with other active galactic nuclei. We show the results of new, extensive photoionization model calculations and use them to investigate line ratio diagrams, such as [O III] λ5007/Hβ versus [O II] λ3727/[O III] λ5007, and [O I] λ6300/[O III] λ5007 versus [O III] λ3727/[O III] λ5007. On the diagrams broad line objects, Seyfert 2 galaxies, and Liners form a continuous smooth sequence of decreasing ionization parameter. This suggests a common origin for line excitation in …