We review the evidence for young stellar populations in the inner (< 200 pc) regions of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), and the physical mechanisms through which the stars can potentially create the emission lines that characterize AGN.
Coronal-Line Forest Active Galactic Nuclei (CLiF AGN) are characterized by strong high-ionization lines, which contrast to what is found in most AGNs. Here, we carry out a multiwavelength analysis aimed at understanding the physical processes in the Narrow Line Region (NLR) of these objects and unveiling if they are indeed a special class of AGN. By comparing coronal emission-line ratios we conclude that there are no differences between CLiF and non-CLiF AGNs. We derive physical conditions of the narrow line region (NLR) gas and found electron densities in the range $3.6times$10$^{2}$ - $1.7times$10$^{4}$ cm$^{-3}$ and temperatures of $3.7times$10$^{3}$ - $6.3times$10$^{4}$ K, suggesting that the ionization mechanism is associated primarily with photoionization by the AGN. We suggest a NLR dominated by matter-bounded clouds to explain the high-ionization line spectrum observed. The mass of the central black hole, derived from the stellar velocity dispersion show that most of the objects have values in the interval 10$^{7-8}$~M$odot$. Our results imply that CLiF AGN is not a separate category of AGNs. In all optical/near-infrared emission-line properties analyzed, they represent an extension to the low/high ends of the distribution within the AGN class.
In this work, we revisit the size-luminosity relation of the extended narrow line regions (ENLRs) using a large sample of nearby active galactic nuclei (AGN) from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey. The ENLRs ionized by the AGN are identified through the spatially resolved BPT diagram, which results in a sample of 152 AGN. By combining our AGN with the literature high-luminosity quasars, we found a tight log-linear relation between the size of the ENLR and the AGN [O III]{lambda}5007{AA} luminosity over four orders of magnitude of the [O III] luminosity. The slope of this relation is 0.42 $pm$ 0.02 which can be explained in terms of a distribution of clouds photoionized by the AGN. This relation also indicates the AGN have the potential to ionize and heat the gas clouds at a large distance from the nuclei without the aids of outflows and jets for the low-luminosity Seyferts.
We use the photoionisation code Cloudy to determine both the location and the kinematics of the optical forbidden, high ionisation line (hereafter, FHIL) emitting gas in the narrow line Seyfert 1 galaxy Ark 564. The results of our models are compared with the observed properties of these emission lines to produce a physical model that is used to explain both the kinematics and the source of this gas. The main features of this model are that the FHIL emitting gas is launched from the putative dusty torus and is quickly accelerated to its terminal velocity of a few hundred km/s. Iron-carrying grains are destroyed during this initial acceleration. This velocity is maintained by a balance between radiative forces and gravity in this super-Eddington source. Eventually the outflow is slowed at large radii by the gravitational forces of and interactions with the host galaxy. In this model, FHIL emission traces the transition between the AGN and bulge zones of influence.
As part of an extensive study of the physical properties of active galactic nuclei (AGN) we report high spatial resolution near-IR integral-field spectroscopy of the narrow-line region (NLR) and coronal-line region (CLR) of seven Seyfert galaxies. These measurements elucidate for the first time the two-dimensional spatial distribution and kinematics of the recombination line Br{gamma} and high-ionization lines [Sivi], [Alix] and [Caviii] on scales <300 pc from the AGN. The observations reveal kinematic signatures of rotation and outflow in the NLR and CLR. The spatially resolved kinematics can be modeled as a combination of an outflow bicone and a rotating disk coincident with the molecular gas. High-excitation emission is seen in both components, suggesting it is leaking out of a clumpy torus. While NGC 1068 (Seyfert 2) is viewed nearly edge-on, intermediate-type Seyferts are viewed at intermediate angles, consistent with unified schemes. A correlation between the outflow velocity and the molecular gas mass in r<30 pc indicates that the accumulation of gas around the AGN increases the collimation and velocity of the outflow. The outflow rate is 2-3 orders of magnitude greater than the accretion rate, implying that the outflow is mass-loaded by the surrounding interstellar medium (ISM). In half of the observed AGN the kinetic power of the outflow is of the order of the power required by two-stage feedback models to be thermally coupled to the ISM and match the M-{sigma}* relation. In these objects the radio jet is clearly interacting with the ISM, indicative of a link between jet power and outflow power.
The masses of supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei (AGN) can be derived spectroscopically via virial mass estimators based on selected broad optical/ultraviolet emission lines. These estimates commonly use the line width as a proxy for the gas speed and the monochromatic continuum luminosity as a proxy for the radius of the broad line region. However, if the size of the broad line region scales with bolometric rather than monochromatic AGN luminosity, mass estimates based on different emission lines will show a systematic discrepancy which is a function of the color of the AGN continuum. This has actually been observed in mass estimates based on H-alpha / H-beta and C IV lines, indicating that AGN broad line regions indeed scale with bolometric luminosity. Given that this effect seems to have been overlooked as yet, currently used single-epoch mass estimates are likely to be biased.