No Arabic abstract
We present results from a coordinated FUSE, HST/STIS and Chandra campaign to study intrinsic UV and X-ray absorption in the outflow of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 7469. Previous non-simultaneous observations of this outflow found two distinct UV absorption components, one of which likely corresponds to the X-ray absorber. The FUSE data reveal that the O VI absorption in this component has strengthened over time, as the continuum flux decreased. We use measured H I, N V, C IV, and O VI column densities to model self-consistently the photoionization state of the absorbers. We confirm the physical picture of the outflow in which the low velocity component is a highly ionized, high density absorber located near the broad emission line region, while the high velocity component is of lower density and resides farther from the central engine.
We present simultaneous X-ray, far-ultraviolet, and near-ultraviolet spectra of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 7469 obtained with the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer, and the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope. Previous non-simultaneous observations of this galaxy found two distinct UV absorption components, at -560 and -1900 km/s, with the former as the likely counterpart of the X-ray absorber. We confirm these two absorption components in our new UV observations, in which we detect prominent O VI, Ly alpha, N V, and C IV absorption. In our Chandra spectrum we detect O VIII emission, but no significant O VIII or O VII absorption. We also detect a prominent Fe K alpha emission line in the Chandra spectrum, as well as absorption due to hydrogen-like and helium-like neon, magnesium, and silicon at velocities consistent with the -560 km/s UV absorber. The FUSE and STIS data reveal that the H I and C IV column densities in this UV- and X-ray- absorbing component have increased over time, as the UV continuum flux decreased. We use measured H I, N V, C IV, and O VI column densities to model the photoionization state of both absorbers self-consistently. We confirm the general physical picture of the outflow in which the low velocity component is a highly ionized, high density absorber with a total column density of 10^20 cm^-2, located near the broad emission line region, although due to measurable columns of N V and C IV, we assign it a somewhat smaller ionization parameter than found previously, U~1. The high velocity UV component is of lower density, log N=18.6, and likely resides farther from the central engine as we find its ionization parameter to be U=0.08.
We present the results of an eight-year long monitoring of the radio emission from the Luminous Infrared Galaxy (LIRG) NGC 7469, using 8.4 GHz Very Large Array (VLA) observations at 0.3 resolution. Our monitoring shows that the late time evolution of the radio supernova SN 2000ft follows a decline very similar to that displayed at earlier times of its optically thin phase. The late time radio emission of SN 2000ft is therefore still being powered by its interaction with the presupernova stellar wind, and not with the interstellar medium (ISM). Indeed, the ram pressure of the presupernova wind is rho_w v_w^2 approx 7.6E-9 dyn/cm^2, at a supernova age of approximately 2127 days, which is significantly larger than the expected pressure of the ISM around SN 2000ft. At this age, the SN shock has reached a distance r_{sh approx 0.06 pc, and our observations are probing the interaction of the SN with dense material that was ejected by the presupernova star about 5820 years prior to its explosion. From our VLA monitoring, we estimate that the swept-up mass by the supernova shock after about six years of expansion is approx 0.29 M_sun, assuming an average expansion speed of the supernova of 10000 km/s. We also searched for recently exploded core-collapse supernovae in our VLA images. Apart from SN 2000ft (S_ u approx 1760 microJy at its peak, corresponding to 1.1E28 erg/s/Hz, we found no evidence for any other radio supernova (RSN) more luminous than approx 6.0E26 erg/s/Hz, which suggests that no other Type IIn SN has exploded since 2000 in the circumnuclear starburst of NGC 7469.
A large reverberation mapping study of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 7469 has yielded emission-line lags for Hbeta 4861 and He II 4686 and a central black hole mass measurement of about 10 million solar masses, consistent with previous measurements. A very low level of variability during the monitoring campaign precluded meeting our original goal of recovering velocity-delay maps from the data, but with the new Hbeta measurement, NGC 7469 is no longer an outlier in the relationship between the size of the Hbeta-emitting broad-line region and the AGN luminosity. It was necessary to detrend the continuum and Hbeta and He II 4686 line light curves and those from archival UV data for different time-series analysis methods to yield consistent results.
NGC 7469 is a well known Luminous IR Galaxy, with a circumnuclear star formation ring ($sim 830$ pc radius) surrounding a Seyfert 1 AGN. Nuclear unresolved winds were previously detected in X-rays and UV, as well as an extended biconical outflow in IR coronal lines. We search for extended outflows by measuring the kinematics of the $mathrm{Hbeta}$ and [O III] $lambda 5007$ optical emission lines, in data of the VLT/MUSE integral field spectrograph. We find evidence of two outflow kinematic regimes: one slower regime extending across most of the star formation ring -- possibly driven by the massive star formation -- and a faster regime (with a maximum velocity of $-715 mathrm{km s^{-1}}$), only observed in [O III], in the western region between the AGN and the massive star forming regions of the ring, likely AGN-driven. This work shows a case where combined AGN/star-formation feedback can be effectively spatially-resolved, opening up a promising path toward a deeper understanding of feedback processes in the central kiloparsec of AGN.
Although AGN feedback through ionised winds is of great importance in models of AGN/galaxy coevolution, the mass and energy output via these winds, even in the nearby universe, is poorly understood. The issue is complicated by the wide range of ionisation in the winds, which means that multiwavelength observational campaigns are required to obtain the complete picture. In this paper, we use a ~ 160 ks XMM-Newton RGS spectrum to get the most accurate view yet of the ionised outflow (warm absorber) in NGC 7469 as seen in X-rays, finding that there is a wide range of ionisation, with log xi in the range ~ 0.5-3.5 erg cm s^-1, and two main velocity regimes, at 580-720 and 2300 km s^-1, with the highest velocity gas being the least ionised. The total absorbing column density in the X-rays is of order 3 x 10^21 cm^-2. We find that the lowest ionisation phase of the absorber is probably identical with one of the phases of the UV absorber discovered in previous studies. We show that both X-ray and UV absorbers are consistent with an origin near the base of a torus wind, where matter is being launched and accelerated. Calculating the mass outflow rate and kinetic luminosity of all the absorber phases, we demonstrate that the X-ray absorbing gas carries respectively ~ 90% and 95% of the mass and kinetic energy output of the ionised outflow.