On the relation between the IR continuum and the active galactic nucleus in Seyfert galaxies

Abstract

A sample of the brightest known Seyfert galaxies from the CfA sample is analyzed on the basis of ISO photometric and spectroscopic data. Regardless of the Seyfert type, the mid-IR continuum emission from these galaxies is found to be correlated with the coronal line emission arising in the nuclear active region. Conversely, the correlation degrades progressively when moving from the mid- to the far-IR emission, where it ends to vanish. It is concluded that the mid-IR emission is largely dominated by dust heated by processes associated with the active nucleus whereas the far-IR is a different component most probably unrelated with the active region. We suggest that the far-IR component is due to dust heated by the stellar population in the disks of these galaxies.

6 pages, 3 figures To be published in Astronomy and Astrophysics

References in corpus (1)

• On the ionizing continuum in active galactic nuclei: clues from ISO

Cited by in corpus (5)

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• Obscured Activity: AGN, Quasars, Starbursts and ULIGs observed by the Infrared Space Observatory
• Origin of Radio Emission from Nearby Low-Luminosity Active Galactic Nuclei
• The IR spectral energy distribution of the Seyfert 2 prototype NGC 5252
• Radio galaxies: unification and dust properties