• 제목/요약/키워드: active galactic nuclei

검색결과 169건 처리시간 0.025초

STRONG INFLUENCE OF THE GALACTIC MAGNETIC FIELD ON THE PROPAGATION OF ULTRA-HIGH ENERGY COSMIC RAYS

  • KIM, JIHYUN;KIM, HANG BAE;RYU, DONGSU
    • 천문학논총
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    • 제30권2호
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    • pp.549-552
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    • 2015
  • The galactic magnetic field (GMF) and the intergalactic magnetic field (IGMF) affect the propagation of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) from the source to us. Here we examine the influences of the GMF/IGFM and the dependence of their sky distribution on galactic latitude, b. We analyze the correlation between the arrival direction (AD) of UHECRs observed by the Pierre Auger Observatory and the large-scale structure of the universe in regions of sky divided by b. Specifically, we compare the AD distribution of observed UHECRs to that of mock UHECRs generated from a source model constructed with active galactic nuclei. Our source model has the smearing angle as a free parameter that reflects the deflection angle of UHECRs from the source. The results show that larger smearing angles are required for the observed distribution of UHECRs in lower galactic latitude regions. We obtain, for instance, a $1{\sigma}$ credible interval for smearing angle of $0^{\circ}{\leq}{\theta}_s{\leq}72^{\circ}$ at high galactic latitudes, $60^{\circ}$ < $\left|{b}\right|{\leq}90^{\circ}$, and of $75^{\circ}{\leq}{\theta}_s{\leq}180^{\circ}$, $-30^{\circ}{\leq}b{\leq}30^{\circ}$, at low galactic latitudes, respectively. The results show that the influence of the GMF is stronger than that of the IGMF. In addition, we can estimate the strength of GMFs by these values; if we assume that UHECRs would have heavier nuclei, the estimated strengths of GMF are consistent with the observational value of a few ${\mu}G$. More data from the future experiments may make UHECR astronomy possible.

Raman scattering Wings of Hydrogen in Active Galactic Nuclei

  • Chang, Seok-Jun;Heo, Jeong-Eun;Di Mille, Francesco;Angeloni, Rodolfo;Palma, Tali;Hong, Chae-Lin;Lee, Hee-Won
    • 천문학회보
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    • 제40권2호
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    • pp.48.1-48.1
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    • 2015
  • Active galactic nuclei (AGNs) are powered by a supermassive black hole with an accretion disk and exhibit prominent broad and narrow emission lines. The unification model AGNs requires the presence of a geometrically and optically thick torus component that hides the broad line region from observers lying in the equatorial direction. The strong far UV radiation characterizing AGN spectra is expected to be scattered inelastically in the torus region to reappear around hydrogen Balmer lines or Paschen lines in the form of broad wings. Adopting a Monte Carlo technique we produce broad wings around $H{\alpha}$, $H{\beta}$ and $Pa{\alpha}$ that are formed through Raman scattering. The widths of the wings are mainly affected by the neutral column density of the torus, and the overall strengths are primarily determined by the covering factor and the column density of the neutral region. It is concluded that deep spectroscopy of AGNs of broad wings around hydrogen emission lines may shed much light on the AGN unification model.

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Unification Model and Rayleigh Scattered Lyα in Active Galactic Nuclei

  • Chang, Seok-Jun;Lee, Hee-Won;Yang, Yujin
    • 천문학회보
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    • 제41권2호
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    • pp.33.2-34
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    • 2016
  • The unification model of active galactic nuclei invokes the presence of a thick molecular torus that hides the broad emission line region from a line of sight toward observers with low latitude. It is expected that the illuminated side of the molecular torus may be photodissociated by strong far UV radiation from the central AGN, forming an H I region with a high neutral column density. We propose that the Rayleigh scattering optical depth of this HI region can be significant for most broad $Ly{\alpha}$ line photons with the Doppler factor not exceeding 104 km s-1. Rayleigh scattered $Ly{\alpha}$ photons can be characterized by strong linear polarization depending on their scattering optical depth. We performed Monte Carlo simulations of polarized radiative transfer of $Ly{\alpha}$ adopting simple scattering geometries relevant to the unification model of AGN. We find that for a low torus the Rayleigh scattered $Ly{\alpha}$ is polarized in the direction parallel to the symmetry axis with the polarization degree dependent on wavelength. In the case of a high torus, the core part of $Ly{\alpha}$ is polarized in the direction perpendicular to the symmetry axis whereas the wing part is parallelly polarized. We conclude that careful spectropolarimetry around $Ly{\alpha}$ can be useful in testing the AGN unification model.

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Photometric Reverberation Mapping of Active Galactic Nuclei with Medium-band filters and LSGT

  • Kim, Joonho;Im, Myungshin;Choi, Changsu
    • 천문학회보
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    • 제42권2호
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    • pp.73.1-73.1
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    • 2017
  • Reverberation mapping is one of the best way to investigate structure and kinematics of broad-line regions around central supermassive black holes of active galactic nuclei (AGN). It is usually used to estimate masses of supermassive black holes. So far, reverberation mapping studies have achieved good results for dozens of AGN by spectroscopic monitoring. However, spectroscopic monitoring is time consuming and high cost. Here, we present result of photometric reverberation mapping with medium-band observation. We monitored five nearby AGN which are already studied, have short time-lag, and show bright H-alpha emission lines. Observation has been performed for ~3 months with ~3 days cadence using three medium-band filters installed in LSGT (Lee Sang Gak Telescope). We found 0.01-0.06 magnitude variations by differential photometry. Also time-lags between continuum light-curves and H-alpha emission line light-curves are calculated using Javelin software. The result shows that our study and previous studies are consistent within uncertainty range. From verification of availability in this study, photometric reverberation mapping could be used as a powerful tool to measure central supermassive black holes for large samples and high-redshift AGN in the future.

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The Most Massive Active Galactic Nuclei at 1

  • Jun, Hyunsung
    • 천문학회보
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    • 제42권2호
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    • pp.44.2-44.2
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    • 2017
  • We obtained near-infrared spectra of 26 SDSS quasars at 0.7${\sim}10^{{\wedge}{10}}M{\odot}$ to critically examine the systematic effects involved with their mass estimations. We find that active galactic nuclei (AGNs) heavier than $10^{{\wedge}{10}}M{\odot}$ often display double-peaked $H{\alpha}$ emission, extremely broad FeII complex emission around MgII, and highly blueshifted and broadened CIV emission. The weight of this evidence, combined with previous studies, cautions against the use of MBH values based on any emission line with a width over 8000 km/s. Also, the MBH estimations are not positively biased along the presence of ionized narrow line outflows, anisotropic radiation, or the use of line FWHM instead of ${\sigma}$ for our sample, and unbiased with variability, scatter in broad line equivalent width, or obscuration for general type-1 quasars. Removing the systematically uncertain MBH values, ${\sim}10^{{\wedge}{10}}M{\odot}$ BHs in 1${\sim}10^{{\wedge}{9.5}}M{\odot}$ BHs, although current observations support they are intrinsically most massive, and overmassive to the host's bulge mass.

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MEASURING THE CORE SHIFT EFFECT IN AGN JETS WITH THE EXTENDED KOREAN VLBI NETWORK

  • JUNG, TAEHYUN;DODSON, RICHARD;HAN, SEOG-TAE;RIOJA, MARIA J.;BYUN, DO-YOUNG;HONMA, MAREKI;STEVENS, JAMIE;VICENTE, PABLO DE;SOHN, BONG WON
    • 천문학회지
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    • 제48권5호
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    • pp.277-284
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    • 2015
  • We present our efforts for extending the simultaneous multi-frequency receiver system of the Korean Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) Network (KVN) to global baselines in order to measure the frequency-dependent position shifts in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) jets, the so called core shift effect, with an unprecedented accuracy (a few micro-arcseconds). Millimeter VLBI observations with simultaneous multi-frequency receiver systems, like those of the KVN, enable us to explore the innermost regions of AGN and high precision astrometry. Such a system is capable of locating the frequency dependent opacity changes accurately. We have conducted the feasibility test-observations with the interested partners by implementing the KVN-compatible systems. Here we describe the science case for measuring the core shift effect in the AGN jet and report progress and future plans on extending the simultaneous multi-frequency system to global baselines.

The long-term mm/radio activity of active galactic nuclei

  • Trippe, Sascha
    • 천문학회보
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    • 제36권2호
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    • pp.59.1-59.1
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    • 2011
  • I present an analysis of the long-term evolution of the fluxes of six active galactic nuclei (AGN) - 0923+392, 3C 111, 3C 273, 3C 345, 3C 454.3, and 3C 84 - in the frequency range 80 - 267 GHz using archival calibration data of the IRAM Plateau de Bure Interferometer. Our dataset spans a long timeline of ~14 years with 974 - 3027 flux measurements per source. We find strong (factors ~2-8) flux variability on timescales of years for all sources. The flux density distributions of five out of six sources show clear signatures of bi- or even multimodality. Our sources show mostly steep (alpha~0.5-1), variable spectral indices that indicate outflow dominated emission; the variability is most probably due to optical depth variations. The power spectra globally correspond to red-noise spectra with five sources being located between the cases of white and flicker noise and one source (3C 111) being closer to the case of random walk noise. For three sources the low-frequency ends of their power spectra appear to be upscaled in spectral power by factors ~2-3 with respect to the overall powerlaws. We conclude that the source emission cannot be described by uniform stochastic emission processes; instead, a distinction of "quiescent" and (maybe multiple) "flare" states of the source emission appears to be necessary.

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Compact Elliptical Galaxies Hosting Active Galactic Nuclei in Isolated Environments

  • Rey, Soo-Chang;Oh, Kyuseok;Kim, Suk
    • 천문학회보
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    • 제46권2호
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    • pp.69.2-69.2
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    • 2021
  • We present the discovery of rare active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in nearby (z<0.05) compact elliptical galaxies (cEs) located in isolated environments. Using spectroscopic data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 12, four AGNs were identified based on the optical emission-line diagnostic diagram. SDSS optical spectra of AGNs show the presence of distinct narrow-line emissions. Utilizing the black hole (BH) mass-stellar velocity dispersion scaling relation and the correlation between the narrow L([OIII])/L(Hβ) line ratio and the width of the broad Hα emission line, we estimated the BH masses of the cEs to be in the range of 7×105-8×107 solar mass. The observed surface brightness profiles of the cEs were fitted with a double Sérsic function using the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey r-band imaging data. Assuming the inner component as the bulge, the K-band bulge luminosity was also estimated from the corresponding Two Micron All Sky Survey images. We found that our cEs follow the observed BH mass-stellar velocity dispersion and BH mass-bulge luminosity scaling relations, albeit there was a large uncertainty in the derived BH mass of one cE. In view of the observational properties of BHs and those of the stellar populations of cEs, we discuss the proposition that cEs in isolated environments are bona fide low-mass early-type galaxies (i.e., a nature origin).

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