Masers in AGN environments

Abstract

Galactic nuclei are well known sources of OH and H2O maser emission. It appears that intense star formation in ultra-luminous infrared galaxies drives most OH sources. In contrast, nuclear activity appears to drive most H2O sources. When H2O emission originates in accretion disk structures, constrained geometry and dynamics enable robust interpretation of spectroscopic and imaging data. The principal science includes study of AGN geometry at parsec and sub-parsec radii and measurement of geometric distances in the Hubble Flow. New high accuracy estimates of the Hubble constant, "Ho," obtained from maser distances may enable new substantively improved constraints on fundamental cosmological parameters (e.g., dark energy).

10 pages, 6 figures, to appear in proceedings of IAU Symposium 242 "Astrophysical Masers and their Environments", held in Alice Springs, March 2007

References in corpus (34)

• Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Three Year Results: Implications for Cosmology
• A Fundamental Relation Between Supermassive Black Holes and Their Host Galaxies
• The Proper Motion of Sgr A*: II. The Mass of Sgr A*
• A 4% Geometric Distance to the Galaxy NGC4258 from Orbital Motions in a Nuclear Gas Disk
• A Fundamental Relation Between Compact Stellar Nuclei, Supermassive Black Holes, and Their Host Galaxies
• A Warped Accretion Disk and Wide Angle Outflow in the Inner Parsec of the Circinus Galaxy
• A new Cepheid distance to the maser-host galaxy NGC 4258 and its implications for the Hubble Constant
• The Parsec-scale Radio Structure of NGC 1068 and the Nature of the Nuclear Radio Source
• The Geometry of and Mass Accretion Rate through the Maser Accretion Disk in NGC 4258
• Radiation-Driven Warping: The Origin of Warps and Precession in Accretion Disks
• Evidence for a Geometrically Thick Self-Gravitating Accretion Disk in NGC 3079
• The Discovery of H2O Maser Emission in Seven AGN and at High Velocities in the Circinus Galaxy
• Water maser emission and the parsec-scale jet in NGC 3079
• The Flaring H2O Megamaser and Compact Radio Source in Mrk 348
• Toward a New Geometric Distance to the Active Galaxy NGC4258: I. VLBI Monitoring of Water Maser Emission
• A Green Bank Telescope Search for Water Masers in Nearby Active Galactic Nuclei
• Discovery of Water Maser Emission in Eight AGN with 70-m Antennas of NASA's Deep Space Network
• Continuum and spectral line observations of the OH Megamaser galaxy Arp 220
• Discovery of Water Maser Emission in Five AGN and a Possible Correlation Between Water Maser and Nuclear 2-10 keV Luminosities
• Extremely Luminous Water Vapor Emission from a Type 2 Quasar at Redshift z = 0.66
• X-ray Luminosity and Absorption Column Fluctuations in the H2O Maser Galaxy NGC 4258 from Weeks to Years
• High-resolution Imaging of the OH Megamaser Emission in IRAS12032+1707 and IRAS14070+0525
• Sensitive VLBI Studies of the OH Megamaser Emission from IRAS 17208-0014
• Low-luminosity Extragalactic Water Masers toward M82, M51, and NGC4051
• First Detection of Millimeter/Submillimeter Extragalactic H2O Maser Emission
• VLBA Imaging of the OH Maser in IIIZw35
• X-ray Emission from Megamaser Galaxy IC 2560
• A Search for Water Maser Emission in Southern AGN and Star Forming Galaxies -- Discovery of a Maser in the Edge-on Galaxy IRASF01063-8034
• Disks, Tori, and Cocoons: Emission and Absorption Diagnostics of AGN Environments
• Extragalactic Water Masers, Geometric Estimation of H_o and Characterization of Dark Energy
• The water megamaser in the merger system Arp299
• OH megamasers, starburst and AGN activity in Markarian 231
• Probing the feeding and feedback of AGN through molecular line maps
• On the X-ray Properties of OH Megamaser Sources: Chandra Snapshot Observations

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Coevolution (Or Not) of Supermassive Black Holes and Host Galaxies
• High accretion rates in magnetised Keplerian discs mediated by a Parker instability driven dynamo
• Water masers in Compton-thick AGN II. The high detection rate and EVN observations of IRAS 15480-0344
• Water masers in Compton-thick AGN I. Detailed study of the new water megamaser in IRAS15480-0344