Publication: A comparison between the soft X-ray and [O III] morphologies of active galactic nuclei
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2017-08
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Gómez Guijarro, Carlos
González Martín, Omaira
Ramos Almeida, Cristina
Miguel Rodríguez-Espinosa, José
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Wiley
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Abstract
Several studies of nearby active galactic nuclei (AGNs) have shown that the soft X-ray emission presents a size and morphology resembling that of the narrow-line region (NLR) traced by [O III]. Since the NLR is mainly constituted by gas photoionized by the AGN, it seems logical to assume that this is also the primary source of the soft X-ray emission. However, these results are based on individual sources or small samples, particularly focused on type-2 Seyfert galaxies. Very little has been said concerning other types of AGNs. The purpose of this work is to compare the circumnuclear morphologies of soft X-ray and [O III] images to test whether they match in different optical classes of AGNs. Our sample is composed of 27 AGNs: 9 type-1 Seyferts, 10 type-2 Seyferts and 8 low-ionization nuclear emission-line regions (LINERs). We find a good match in 100 per cent of the type-2 Seyferts in our sample. This correspondence is less frequent in type-1 Seyferts (22 per cent) and it is not seen in LINERs. The good resemblance in type-2 Seyferts constitutes evidence for a common physical origin. We argue that the lack of correspondence in type-1 Seyferts might be due to the line of sight perpendicular to the accretion disc. Based on the morphologies of the eight LINERs in our sample, we discard a common origin for the soft X-ray and [O III] emissions in these objects. Regarding the X-ray properties, both high column density and hard X-ray luminosity are associated with matched morphologies.
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© 2017 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. Authors acknowledges the Spanish Plan Nacional de Astronomía y Astrofísica of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under grants AYA2013-46724-P, AYA2012-30717 and AYA2009-10368 (CGG and JGM), AYA2016-76682-C3-2-P (CRA), and AYA2015-70498-C2-1-R (JMRE). CGG thanks the 2014 Summer Internship Programme at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC). OGM credits the project UNAM PAPIIT-IA100516. CRA acknowledges the Ramón y Cajal Program of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through project RYC-2014-15779.; Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, and obtained from the Hubble Legacy Archive, which is a collaboration between the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI/NASA), the Space Telescope European Coordinating Facility (ST-ECF/ESA) and the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre (CADC/NRC/CSA). Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute. STScI is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. This research has made use of data and/or software provided by the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC), which is a service of the Astrophysics Science Division at NASA/GSFC and the High Energy Astrophysics Division of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.