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Spectropolarimetry Surveys of Obscured Active Galactic Nuclei Edward Moran Wesleyan University Aaron Barth (UC Irvine), Laura Kay (Barnard), Alex Filippenko.

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Presentation on theme: "Spectropolarimetry Surveys of Obscured Active Galactic Nuclei Edward Moran Wesleyan University Aaron Barth (UC Irvine), Laura Kay (Barnard), Alex Filippenko."— Presentation transcript:

1 Spectropolarimetry Surveys of Obscured Active Galactic Nuclei Edward Moran Wesleyan University Aaron Barth (UC Irvine), Laura Kay (Barnard), Alex Filippenko (UC Berkeley), Mike Eracleous (Penn State)

2 Moran et al. (2000) M. Urry & P. Padovani

3 Moran et al. (2000) Where is the obscuration?  narrow lines are unpolarized  obscuration must be beyond the BLR, but interior to most of the NLR (i.e., ~ 1 – few pc) Where is the mirror?  can extend from the opening of the torus to > 100 pc from the nucleus (i.e., in the NLR; Kishimoto 1999; Kishimoto et al. 2002a, 2002b)

4 Starlight dilution N3081 N224 N3081  Seyfert 2 spectra dominated by unpolarized bulge starlight  F g = 50–90% is typical; dilutes polarization signal  but after starlight correction, P(H  ) still > P(continuum)  “F C2 ” also dilutes polarization; caused by hot stars (e.g., Gonzalez Delgado et al. 1998)  High intrinsic polarizations obtained after correction for F C2 (Tran 1995)

5 Spectropolarimetry Surveys  sample: 24 “warm” IRAS galaxies & selected Seyfert 2s  instrument: AAT 3.9-m  results: some new detections, but no HBLR in majority Young et al. (1996) Heisler, Lumsden, & Bailey (1997)  sample: 16 IRAS-selected Seyfert 2s, S 60 > 5 Jy  instrument: AAT 3.9-m  results: 1 new detection; 44% (7 objects) are HBLRs

6  sample: 24 IRAS-selected Seyfert 2s, S 60 > 3 Jy, L FIR > 10 10 L , S 60 /S 25 < 8.85  instrument: AAT 3.9-m, WHT 4.2-m  results: 1 new detection, 33% (8 objects) are HBLRs Lumsden et al. (2001) Tran (2001, 2003)  sample: 49 objects from the CfA and 12  m samples  instrument: Lick 3-m & Palomar 5-m  results: 5 new detections; 45% (22 objects) are HBLRs  Spectropolarimetry Surveys

7  sample: 38 objects from Ulvestad & Wilson (1989; UW89)  31 bona fide Seyfert 2s  7 narrow-line X-ray galaxies (4 Sy 1.9s & 3 Sy 2s)  distance-limited (cz < 4600 km s –1 )  instrument: Keck 10-m  results: 9 new detections, 45% (17 objects) are HBLRs Us (Moran et al. 2000, 2001; Kay et al. 2006) Barth, Filippenko, & Moran (1999)  sample: 14 LLAGNs objects from the Ho et al. (1997) survey  instrument: Keck 10-m  results: 3 new HBLRs in LINERs  two LINER 1.9s (NGC 315, NGC 1052)  one LINER 2 (NGC 4261)

8 Differences between HBLR and Non-HBLR Seyfert 2s? Moran et al. (1992)

9 Sample issues:  Flux-limited surveys  clearly defined  luminosity bias  Volume-limited surveys  no bias  completeness is a concern  UW89 sample is relatively unbiased  Impotant because luminosity is one of the main issues here

10 Radio luminosity  Lumsden et al. (2001): not much difference in total radio power P tot ; HBLRs slightly higher core luminosity P core  Tran (2003): HBLRs slightly stronger in P tot  Gu & Huang (2002): HBLRs significantly stronger in P tot UW89 result: HBLRs have somwhat higher P core

11 CfA/12  m sample (Tran 2003) UW89 sample Far-infrared colors  All previous studies find that HBLRs are significantly “warmer” than non-HBLRs (Heisler, Tran, Lumsden, Gu)  UW89 result: differences not nearly as extreme

12 Other indicators  L([O III])  prior studies: HBLRs tend to be more luminous  significant overlap between HBLRs and non-HBLRs  Hard X-ray * N H distributions of HBLRs and non-HBLRs are similar (Alexander 2001; Tran 2001; Gu et al. 2001) * many UW89 sources too weak to model their spectra, and many are Compton-thick (Risaliti et al. 1999) Moran et al. (2001) composite X-ray spectra

13 Luminosity differences  HBLRs tend to be more luminous  higher nuclear luminosity explains S 25 /S 60 results (Alexander 2001; Lumsden et al. 2001; Gu & Huang 2002)  nucleus/host galaxy contrast effect? (Kay 1994; Lumsden & Alexander 2001)  do luminosity differences establish that non-HBLR objects are “true” Seyfert 2s (Tran 2003)?  before you decide, remember: spectropolarimetry is hard!

14 NGC 5929 but bigger is better!near misses!

15 UW89 sample [O III] equivalent width as a contrast indicator  Lumsden et al. (2001)

16 Alternatives to simple orientation  low-luminosity = no BLR? (Tran 2003)  accretion-rate issues? (Nicastro et al. 2003)  BLR absent in low m objects  possible candidates exist (e.g., Tran 2005)  HBLRs in some LINERs? (Barth et al. 1999)  dust lanes? (e.g., Malkan, Matt, Guainazzi, Lamastra et al.)  many UW89 non-HBLRs have high N H  4/7 UW89 objects with log N H < 23 have HBLRs... torus  dust lanes could obscure fraction of UW89 non-HBLRs  non-HBLRs as edge-on NLS1s? (Zhang & Wang 2006)

17 Summary  ~ 50% of Seyfert 2s have polarized broad lines  some luminosity differences exist between HBLRs and non-HBLRs  but much overlap between the two types  much overlap in EW([O III]) as well  luminosity or contrast alone can’t explain polarization results  take care when interpreting spectropolatimetry non-detections  many reasons why techniques might not work  possibility that more HBLRs will turn up in deeper observaton is very real

18 NGC 2110

19 Elliptical disk fit

20

21

22 Early results from Lick Observatory  NGC 1068: Miller & Antonucci (1983); Antonucci & Miller (1985); Miller, Goodrich, & Mathews (1991)  4 more hidden broad-line regions (HBLRs) among high- polarization Seyfert 2s: Miller & Goodrich (1990)  Continuum polarizations of Seyfert 2s low, and starlight fractions high: Kay (1990; 1994)  4 more HBLRs: Tran, Miller, & Kay (1992)  Detailed study of 10 HBLR Seyfert 2s – complex continua and dominance of electron scattering: Tran (1995)

23 in the plane of the sky...  in the plane of the scattering... Why a torus? Polarization suggests  radiation field anisotropic prior to scattering  obscuration cylindrically symmetric, roughly

24 Hard X-ray evidence NGC 788  hard = 1.70 log N H = 23.7


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