J/ApJ/867/66 Double-peaked narrow lines in AGN. IV. Mergers (Comerford+, 2018)
The origin of double-peaked narrow lines in active galactic nuclei.
IV. Association with galaxy mergers.
Comerford J.M., Nevin R., Stemo A., Muller-Sanchez F., Barrows R.S.,
Cooper M.C., Newman J.A.
<Astrophys. J., 867, 66 (2018)>
=2018ApJ...867...66C 2018ApJ...867...66C
ADC_Keywords: Active gal. nuclei; Spectra, optical; Velocity dispersion
Keywords: galaxies: active ; galaxies: interactions ; galaxies: nuclei
Abstract:
Double-peaked narrow emission lines in active galactic nucleus (AGN)
spectra can be produced by AGN outflows, rotation, or dual AGNs, which
are AGN pairs in ongoing galaxy mergers. Consequently, double-peaked
narrow AGN emission lines are useful tracers of the coevolution of
galaxies and their supermassive black holes, as driven by AGN feedback
and AGN fueling. We investigate this concept further with follow-up
optical longslit observations of a sample of 95 Sloan Digital Sky
Survey (SDSS) galaxies that have double-peaked narrow AGN emission
lines. Based on a kinematic analysis of the longslit spectra, we
confirm previous work that finds that the majority of double-peaked
narrow AGN emission lines are associated with outflows. We also find
that eight of the galaxies have companion galaxies with line-of-sight
velocity separations <500km/s and physical separations <30kpc. Since
we find evidence of AGNs in both galaxies, all eight of these systems
are compelling dual AGN candidates. Galaxies with double-peaked narrow
AGN emission lines occur in such galaxy mergers at least twice as
often as typical active galaxies. Finally, we conclude that at least
3% of SDSS galaxies with double-peaked narrow AGN emission lines are
found in galaxy mergers where both galaxies are resolved in SDSS
imaging.
Description:
Of the 95 z>0.1 galaxies in our sample, we previously observed 54 of
them with the Kast Spectrograph at Lick Observatory (3m telescope,
pixel size 0.78") in 2009 April-August and 2010 January-July, the
Double Spectrograph (DBSP) at Palomar Observatory (5m telescope, pixel
size 0.47" for the red detector and 0.39" for the blue detector) on
2010 December 1-2, and the Blue Channel Spectrograph at MMT
Observatory (6.5m telescope, pixel size 0.29") in 2010.
In addition, we obtained, in 2010, optical longslit observations of
41 more z>0.1 double-peaked AGNs with GMOS-North on the Gemini
Observatory North 8m telescope (pixel size 0.073" for 1x1 pixel
binning and 0.145" for 1x2 pixel binning), GMOS-South on the Gemini
Observatory South 8m telescope (pixel size 0.073" for 1x1 pixel
binning and 0.146" for 1x2 pixel binning), LRIS on the Keck I 10m
telescope (pixel size 0.135"), and DEIMOS on the Keck II 10m telescope
(pixel size 0.119").
File Summary:
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FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
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ReadMe 80 . This file
table1.dat 160 95 Summary of observations
table2.dat 136 190 Kinematic classifications of the 95 galaxies
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See also:
V/147 : The SDSS Photometric Catalogue, Release 12 (Alam+, 2015)
J/ApJ/705/L76 : AGNs with double-peaked [OIII] lines (Wang+, 2009)
J/ApJ/708/427 : Type 2 AGNs with double-peaked [OIII] lines (Liu+, 2010)
J/ApJ/716/866 : SDSS search for binary AGN (Smith+, 2010)
J/ApJ/753/42 : Double-peaked AGN. I. Dual AGN candidates (Comerford+, 2012)
J/ApJS/201/31 : Emission-line galaxies from SDSS. I. (Ge+, 2012)
J/ApJ/746/L22 : Dual AGNs in the nearby Universe (Koss+, 2012)
J/ApJ/769/95 : [NeV] or [NeIII] double peaked SDSS quasars (Barrows+, 2013)
J/ApJ/777/64 : A search for double-peaked AGNs in AGES (Comerford+, 2013)
J/ApJ/789/112 : Offset AGN Candidates (Comerford+, 2014)
J/ApJ/832/67 : Double-peaked narrow lines in AGN. II. z<0.1 (Nevin+, 2016)
Byte-by-byte Description of file: table1.dat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1- 4 A4 --- --- [SDSS]
6- 24 A19 --- SDSS SDSS designation (JHHMMSS.ss+DDMMSS.s)
26- 43 A18 --- Inst Telescope/instrument (1)
45- 53 A9 --- R Spectral resolution (2)
55- 68 A14 --- Lines BPT emission lines (3)
70-127 A58 --- Date Observation date; UT (4)
129-133 F5.1 deg PA1 Position angle of first observation (5)
135-139 F5.1 deg PA2 [90/178.1]? Position angle of
second observation (5)
141-149 A9 s Exp Exposure time at each position angle (6)
151-160 A10 --- Name Abbreviated name as used in Table 2;
column added by CDS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note (1): 1x1 or 1x2 binnings are denoted for the Gemini/GMOS observations.
Note (2): Where two spectral resolutions are listed, the first refers to
the blue side and the second refers to the red side.
Note (3): Covered by the wavelength range of observations.
Note (4): Where multiple dates are listed, the first position angle was
observed on the first dates and the second position angle was
observed on the second dates.
Note (5): Measured in degrees from east of north.
Note (6): Where two exposure times are listed, the first exposure time was for
the first position angle and the second exposure time was for the
second position angle.
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Byte-by-byte Description of file: table2.dat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1- 10 A10 --- Name SDSS designation (JHHMM+DDMM)
12- 16 F5.1 deg PAobs Observed position angle (1)
18- 22 A5 --- NR Number of spatial rows (2)
24- 29 F6.1 km/s Vr [-664/1231] Line-of-sight velocity difference (3)
31- 35 F5.1 km/s E_Vr [0/792] Upper uncertainty on Vr
37- 41 F5.1 km/s e_Vr [0.1/297] Lower uncertainty on Vr
43- 48 F6.1 km/s sigma1 [67/2241] Dispersion of first component of a
double-Gaussian fit to emission line profile
50- 54 F5.1 km/s E_sigma1 [2/607] Upper uncertainty on sigma1
56- 61 F6.2 km/s e_sigma1 [0/397] Lower uncertainty on sigma1
63- 68 F6.1 km/s sigma2 [61/1053] Dispersion of second component of a
double-Gaussian fit to emission line profile
70- 74 F5.1 km/s E_sigma2 [0.6/929] Upper uncertainty on sigma2
76- 80 F5.1 km/s e_sigma2 [0.1/295] Lower uncertainty on sigma2
82- 86 F5.1 deg PAgal ? Galaxy r-band major axis position angle (1)
88- 92 F5.1 deg PAO3 ? Maximum extent [OIII] 5007 position angle (1)
94- 97 F4.1 deg e_PAO3 [0.2/13]? Uncertainty in PAO3
99-103 F5.2 --- A [-0.9/1] Asymmetry of emission line profile
105-136 A32 --- Class Kinematic classification
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Note (1): Measured in degrees from east of north.
Note (2): Of emission in the longslit spectrum that are best fit by >2
Gaussians within the FWHM of the continuum.
Note (3): Between the velocity derived from a single-Gaussian fit to the
emission line profile and the systemic velocity of the galaxy.
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History:
From electronic version of the journal
References:
Muller-Sanchez et al. Paper I. 2015ApJ...813..103M 2015ApJ...813..103M
Nevin et al. Paper II. 2016ApJ...832...67N 2016ApJ...832...67N Cat. J/ApJ/832/67
Nevin et al. Paper III. 2018MNRAS.473.2160N 2018MNRAS.473.2160N
(End) Prepared by [AAS], Emmanuelle Perret [CDS] 11-Oct-2019