The AGNIFS survey: distribution and excitation of the hot molecular and ionised gas in the inner kpc of nearby AGN hosts

R. A. Riffel; T. Storchi-Bergmann; R. Riffel; M. Bianchin; N. L. Zakamska; D. Ruschel-Dutra; A. J. Schonell; D. J. Rosario; A. Rodriguez-Ardila; T. C. Fischer; R. I. Davies; N. Z. Dametto; L. G. Dahmer-Hahn; D. M. Crenshaw; L. Burtscher; M. C. Bentz

doi:10.1093/mnras/stab998

paper

The AGNIFS survey: distribution and excitation of the hot molecular and ionised gas in the inner kpc of nearby AGN hosts

arXiv:2104.03105 · doi:10.1093/mnras/stab998

Abstract

We use the Gemini NIFS instrument to map the H $_{2} 2.1218 μ$ m and Br $γ$ flux distributions in the inner 0.04-2 kpc of a sample of 36 nearby active galaxies ( $0.001 ≲ z ≲ 0.056$ ) at spatial resolutions from 4 to 250 pc. We find extended emission in 34 galaxies. In $\sim$ 55% of them, the emission in both lines is most extended along the galaxy major axis, while in the other 45% the extent follows a distinct orientation. The emission of H $_{2}$ is less concentrated than that of Br $γ$ , presenting a radius that contains half of the flux 60% greater, on average. The H $_{2}$ emission is driven by thermal processes - X-ray heating and shocks - at most locations for all galaxies, where $0.4 < H_{2} / B r γ < 6$ . For regions where H $_{2}$ /Br $γ > 6$ (seen in 40% of the galaxies), shocks are the main H $_{2}$ excitation mechanism, while in regions with H $_{2}$ /Br $γ < 0.4$ (25% of the sample) the H $_{2}$ emission is produced by fluorescence. The only difference we found between type 1 and type 2 AGN was in the nuclear emission-line equivalent widths, that are smaller in type 1 than in type 2 due to a larger contribution to the continuum from the hot dusty torus in the former. The gas masses in the inner 125 pc radius are in the range $1 0^{1} - 1 0^{4}$ M $_{⊙}$ for the hot H $_{2}$ and $1 0^{3} - 1 0^{6}$ M $_{⊙}$ for the ionised gas and would be enough to power the AGN in our sample for $1 0^{5} - 1 0^{8}$ yr at their current accretion rates.

21 pages, accepted for publication in MNRAS

The AGNIFS survey: distribution and excitation of the hot molecular and ionised gas in the inner kpc of nearby AGN hosts

Abstract

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