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Register a new userAGN Type-casting: Mrk 590 No Longer Fits the Role
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K.D. Denney
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We present multi-wavelength observations that trace more than 40 years in the life of the active galactic nucleus (AGN) in Mrk 590, traditionally known as a classic Seyfert 1 galaxy. From spectra recently obtained from HST, Chandra, and the Large Binocular Telescope, we find that the activity in the nucleus of Mrk 590 has diminished so significantly that the continuum luminosity is a factor of 100 lower than the peak luminosity probed by our long baseline observations. Furthermore, the broad emission lines, once prominent in the UV/optical spectrum, have all but disappeared. Since AGN type is defined by the presence of broad emission lines in the optical spectrum, our observations demonstrate that Mrk 590 has now become a changing look AGN. If classified by recent optical spectra, Mrk 590 would be a Seyfert ~1.9-2, where the only broad emission line still visible in the optical spectrum is a weak component of Halpha. As an additional consequence of this change, we have definitively detected UV narrow-line components in a Type 1 AGN, allowing an analysis of these emission-line components with high-resolution COS spectra. These observations challenge the historical paradigm that AGN type is only a consequence of the line of sight viewing angle toward the nucleus in the presence of a geometrically-flattened, obscuring medium (i.e., the torus). Our data instead suggest that the current state of Mrk 590 is a consequence of the change in luminosity, which implies the black hole accretion rate has significantly decreased.
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Mrk 590 was originally classified as a Seyfert 1 galaxy, but then it underwent dramatic changes: the nuclear luminosity dropped by over two orders of magnitude and the broad emission lines all but disappeared from the optical spectrum. Here we present followup observations to the original discovery and characterization of this changing look active galactic nucleus (AGN). The new Chandra and HST observations from 2014 show that Mrk 590 is awakening, changing its appearance again. While the source continues to be in a low state, its soft excess has re-emerged, though not to the previous level. The UV continuum is brighter by more than a factor of two and the broad MgII emission line is present, indicating that the ionizing continuum is also brightening. These observations suggest that the soft excess is not due to reprocessed hard X-ray emission. Instead, it is connected to the UV continuum through warm Comptonization. Variability of the Fe K-alpha emission lines suggests that the reprocessing region is within about 10 light years or 3 pc of the central source. The AGN type change is neither due to obscuration, nor due to one-way evolution from type-1 to type-2, as suggested in literature, but may be related to episodic accretion events.
We examine the long-term optical/near-infrared (NIR) flux variability of a changing-look active galactic nucleus (AGN) Mrk 590 between 1998 and 2007. Multi-band multi-epoch optical/NIR photometry data from the SDSS Stripe 82 database and the Multicolor Active Galactic Nuclei Monitoring (MAGNUM) project reveal that Mrk 590 experienced a sudden luminosity decrease during the period from 2000 to 2001. Detection of dust reverberation lag signals between $V$- and $K$-band light curves obtained by the MAGNUM project during the faint state in $2003-2007$ suggests that the dust torus innermost radius $R_text{dust}$ of Mrk 590 had become very small [$R_text{dust} simeq 32$~ light-days (lt-days)] by the year 2004 according to the aforementioned significant decrease in AGN luminosity. The $R_text{dust}$ in the faint state is comparable to the H$beta$ broad line region (BLR) radius of $R_{text{H}beta, text{BLR}} simeq 26$ lt-days measured by previous reverberation mapping observations during the bright state of Mrk 590 in $1990-1996$. These observations indicate that the innermost radius of the dust torus in Mrk 590 decreased rapidly after the AGN ultraviolet-optical luminosity drop, and that the replenishment time scale of the innermost dust distribution is less than 4 years, which is much shorter than the free fall time scale of BLR gas or dust clouds. We suggest that rapid replenishment of the innermost dust distribution can be accomplished either by new dust formation in radiatively-cooled BLR gas clouds or by new dust formation in the disk atmosphere and subsequent vertical wind from the dusty disk as a result of radiation pressure.
We investigate the origin of the parsec-scale radio emission from the changing-look active galactic nucleus (AGN) of Mrk 590, and examine whether the radio power has faded concurrently with the dramatic decrease in accretion rates observed between the 1990s and the present. We detect a compact core at 1.6 GHz and 8.4 GHz using new Very Long Baseline Array observations, finding no significant extended, jet-like features down to $sim$1 pc scales. The flat spectral index ($alpha_{1.6}^{8.4} = 0.03$) and high brightness temperature ($T_{rm b} sim 10^{8},rm K$) indicate self-absorbed synchrotron emission from the AGN. The radio to X-ray luminosity ratio of ${rm log}(L_{rm R}/L_{rm X}) sim -5$, similar to that in coronally active stars, suggests emission from magnetized coronal winds, although unresolved radio jets are also consistent with the data. Comparing new Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array measurements with archival and published radio flux densities, we find $46%$, $34%$, and (insignificantly) $13%$ flux density decreases between the 1990s and the year 2015 at 1.4 GHz, 5 GHz and 8.4 GHz respectively. This trend, possibly due to the expansion and fading of internal shocks within the radio-emitting outflow after a recent outburst, is consistent with the decline of the optical-UV and X-ray luminosities over the same period. Such correlated variability demonstrates the AGN accretion-outflow connection, confirming that the changing-look behaviour in Mrk 590 originates from variable accretion rates rather than dust obscuration. The present radio and X-ray luminosity correlation, consistent with low/hard state accretion, suggests that the black hole may now be accreting in a radiatively inefficient mode.
We investigate if the active galactic nucleus (AGN) of Mrk 590, whose supermassive black hole was until recently highly accreting, is turning off due to a lack of central gas to fuel it. We analyse new sub-arcsecond resolution ALMA maps of the $^{12}$CO(3-2) line and 344 GHz continuum emission in Mrk 590. We detect no $^{12}$CO(3-2) emission in the inner 150 pc, constraining the central molecular gas mass to $M({rm H_2}) lesssim 1.6 times 10^5, {M_{odot}}$, no more than a typical giant molecular gas cloud, for a CO luminosity to gas mass conversion factor of $alpha_{rm CO}sim 0.8,{M_{odot},rm (K ,km,s^{-1},pc^{2}})^{-1}$. However, there is still potentially enough gas to fuel the black hole for another $2.6 times 10^5$ years assuming Eddington-limited accretion. We therefore cannot rule out that the AGN may just be experiencing a temporary feeding break, and may turn on again in the near future. We discover a ring-like structure at a radius of $sim 1$ kpc, where a gas clump exhibiting disturbed kinematics and located just $sim 200$ pc west of the AGN, may be refueling the centre. Mrk 590 does not have significantly less gas than other nearby AGN host galaxies at kpc scales, confirming that gas reservoirs at these scales provide no direct indication of on-going AGN activity and accretion rates. Continuum emission detected in the central 150 pc likely originates from warm AGN-heated dust, although contributions from synchrotron and free-free emission cannot be ruled out.
We reinvestigate a claimed sample of 22 X-ray detected active galactic nuclei (AGN) at redshifts z > 4, which has reignited the debate as to whether young galaxies or AGN reionized the Universe. These sources lie within the GOODS-S/CANDELS field, and we examine both the robustness of the claimed X-ray detections (within the Chandra 4Ms imaging) and perform an independent analysis of the photometric redshifts of the optical/infrared counterparts. We confirm the reality of only 15 of the 22 reported X-ray detections, and moreover find that only 12 of the 22 optical/infrared counterpart galaxies actually lie robustly at z > 4. Combining these results we find convincing evidence for only 7 X-ray AGN at z > 4 in the GOODS-S field, of which only one lies at z > 5. We recalculate the evolving far-UV (1500 Angstrom) luminosity density produced by AGN at high redshift, and find that it declines rapidly from z = 4 to z = 6, in agreement with several other recent studies of the evolving AGN luminosity function. The associated rapid decline in inferred hydrogen-ionizing emissivity contributed by AGN falls an order-of-magnitude short of the level required to maintain hydrogen ionization at z ~ 6. We conclude that all available evidence continues to favour a scenario in which young galaxies reionized the Universe, with AGN making, at most, a very minor contribution to cosmic hydrogen reionization.
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