Gas inflows in the polar ring of NGC 4111: the birth of an AGN
arXiv:2203.02532 · doi:10.1093/mnras/stac634
Abstract
We have used Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images, SAURON Integral Field Spectroscopy (IFS) and adaptative optics assisted Gemini NIFS near-infrared K-band IFS to map the stellar and gas distribution, excitation and kinematics of the inner few kpc of the nearby edge-on S0 galaxy NGC 4111. The HST images map its 450 pc diameter dusty polar ring, with an estimated gas mass M. The NIFS datacube maps the inner 110 pc radius at 7 pc spatial resolution revealing a 220 pc diameter polar ring in hot ( K) molecular H 1-0 S(1) gas embedded in the polar ring. The stellar velocity field shows disk-dominated kinematics along the galaxy plane both in the SAURON large-scale and in the NIFS nuclear-scale data. The large-scale [O III] Åvelocity field shows a superposition of two disk kinematics: one similar to that of the stars and another along the polar ring, showing non-circular motions that seem to connect with the velocity field of the nuclear H ring, whose kinematics indicate accelerated inflow to the nucleus. The estimated mass inflow rate is enough not only to feed an Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) but also to trigger circumnuclear star formation in the near future. We propose a scenario in which gas from the polar ring, which probably originated from the capture of a dwarf galaxy, is moving inwards and triggering an AGN, as supported by the local X-ray emission, which seems to be the source of the H 1-0 S(1) excitation. The fact that we see neither near-UV nor Br emission suggests that the nascent AGN is still deeply buried under the optically thick dust of the polar ring.
arXiv comment18 pages, 21 figures
References in corpus (52)
- The Host Galaxies of AGN
- Theoretical Modeling of Starburst Galaxies
- The SIMBAD astronomical database
- Parametric Recovery of Line-of-Sight Velocity Distributions from Absorption-Line Spectra of Galaxies via Penalized Likelihood
- Adaptive spatial binning of integral-field spectroscopic data using Voronoi tessellations
- Revisiting the Scaling Relations of Black Hole Masses and Host Galaxy Properties
- The Atlas3D project -- I. A volume-limited sample of 260 nearby early-type galaxies: science goals and selection criteria
- An updated MILES stellar library and stellar population models
- The Atlas3D project - XV. Benchmark for early-type galaxies scaling relations from 260 dynamical models: mass-to-light ratio, dark matter, Fundamental Plane and Mass Plane
- The SAURON project. I. The panoramic integral-field spectrograph
- Kinemetry: a generalisation of photometry to the higher moments of the line-of-sight velocity distribution
- Alternative diagnostic diagrams and the "forgotten" population of weak line galaxies in the SDSS
- The SAURON project - III. Integral-field absorption-line kinematics of 48 elliptical and lenticular galaxies
- The ATLAS3D project - II. Morphologies, kinemetric features and alignment between photometric and kinematic axes of early-type galaxies
- The Atlas3D Project - XXX. Star formation histories and stellar population scaling relations of early-type galaxies
- A Search for "Dwarf" Seyfert Nuclei. V. Demographics of Nuclear Activity in Nearby Galaxies
- Measuring non-axisymmetry in spiral galaxies
- Unification of the Fundamental Plane and Super-Massive Black Holes Masses
- The SAURON project - XII. Kinematic substructures in early-type galaxies: evidence for disks in fast rotators
- An X-ray view of 82 LINERs with Chandra and XMM-Newton data
- Mapping of the molecular gas inflow towards the Seyfert nucleus of NGC4051 using Gemini NIFS
- Observational Constraints on the Feeding of Supermassive Black Holes
- ALMA reveals the feeding of the Seyfert 1 nucleus in NGC 1566
- A Search for Kinematic Evidence of Radial Gas Flows in Spiral Galaxies
- Feeding versus Feedback in NGC 4151 probed with Gemini NIFS. I. Excitation
- Stellar and Molecular Gas Kinematics of NGC1097: Inflow Driven by a Nuclear Spiral
- Molecular Hydrogen and [FeII] in Active Galactic Nuclei
- Radiatively Inefficient Accretion Flow in the Nucleus of NGC 1097
- The nature of the molecular gas system in the core of NGC 1275
- SINFONI adaptive optics integral field spectroscopy of the Circinus Galaxy
- Near-infrared spectroscopy of nearby Seyfert galaxies. I. First results
- The Gemini spectral library of near-IR late type stellar templates and its application for velocity dispersion measurements
- Molecular gas in the centre of nearby galaxies from VLT/SINFONI integral field spectroscopy - I. Morphology and mass inventory
- A Search for Ultraviolet Emission from LINERs
- Warm and Cold Molecular Gas in Galaxies
- Structure and Kinematics of Molecular Disks in Fast-Rotator Early-Type Galaxies
- The Atlas3D project -- XXXI. Nuclear radio emission in nearby early-type galaxies
- Gas inflows towards the nucleus of the active galaxy NGC7213
- Kinematic analysis of nuclear spirals: feeding the black hole in NGC1097
- Intermediate age stars as origin of the low velocity dispersion nuclear ring in Mrk1066
- Intermediate-age Stars as Origin of Low Stellar velocity Dispersion Nuclear Rings: the case of Mrk 1157
- The properties of early-type galaxies in the Ursa Major cluster
- ALMA follows streaming of dense gas down to 40 pc from the supermassive black hole in NGC1097
- The Diversity of Thick Galactic Discs
- A blind HI survey in the Ursa Major region
- What triggers black-hole growth? Insights from star formation rates
- Gemini NIFS survey of feeding and feedback in nearbyActive Galaxies - III. Ionized versus warm molecular gasmasses and distributions
- Anatomy of Ursa Majoris
- Nuclear Spiral Shocks and Induced Gas Inflows in Weak Oval Potentials
- Outflows, Inflows and Young Stars in the inner 200 pc of the Seyfert galaxy NGC 2110
- Gas inflows towards the nucleus of the Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC1667
- Galaxy evolution in dense environments; a concise HI perspective