We present optical integral field spectroscopy of the circum-nuclear gas of the Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 1386. The data cover the central 7$^{primeprime} times 9^{primeprime}$ (530 $times$ 680 pc) at a spatial resolution of 0.9 (68 pc), and the spectral
range 5700-7000 AA at a resolution of 66 km s$^{-1}$. The line emission is dominated by a bright central component, with two lobes extending $approx$ 3$^{primeprime}$ north and south of the nucleus. We identify three main kinematic components. The first has low velocity dispersion ($bar sigma approx $ 90 km s$^{-1}$), extends over the whole field-of-view, and has a velocity field consistent with gas rotating in the galaxy disk. We interpret the lobes as resulting from photoionization of disk gas in regions where the AGN radiation cones intercept the disk. The second has higher velocity dispersion ($bar sigma approx$ 200 km s$^{-1}$) and is observed in the inner 150 pc around the continuum peak. This component is double peaked, with redshifted and blueshifted components separated by $approx$ 500 km s$^{-1}$. Together with previous HST imaging, these features suggest the presence of a bipolar outflow for which we estimate a mass outflow rate of $mathrm{dot M} gtrsim $ 0.1 M$_{odot}$ yr$^{-1}$. The third component is revealed by velocity residuals associated with enhanced velocity dispersion and suggests that outflow and/or rotation is occurring approximately in the equatorial plane of the torus. A second system of velocity residuals may indicate the presence of streaming motions along dusty spirals in the disk.
Persistent homology is a vital tool for topological data analysis. Previous work has developed some statistical estimators for characteristics of collections of persistence diagrams. However, tools that provide statistical inference for observations
that are persistence diagrams are limited. Specifically, there is a need for tests that can assess the strength of evidence against a claim that two samples arise from the same population or process. We propose the use of randomization-style null hypothesis significance tests (NHST) for these situations. The test is based on a loss function that comprises pairwise distances between the elements of each sample and all the elements in the other sample. We use this method to analyze a range of simulated and experimental data. Through these examples we experimentally explore the power of the p-values. Our results show that the randomization-style NHST based on pairwise distances can distinguish between samples from different processes, which suggests that its use for hypothesis tests upon persistence diagrams is reasonable. We demonstrate its application on a real dataset of fMRI data of patients with ADHD.
From an optical spectroscopic survey of 3CR radiogalaxies (RGs) with z<0.3, we discovered three objects characterized by an extremely low level of gas excitation and a large deficit of line emission with respect to RGs of similar radio luminosity. We
interpreted these objects as relic active galactic nuclei (AGN), i.e., sources observed after a large drop in their nuclear activity. We here present new spectroscopic observations for these three galaxies and for a group of candidate relics. None of the candidates can be convincingly confirmed. From the new data for the three relics, we estimate the density of the line-emitting gas. This enables us to explore the temporal evolution of the line ratios after the AGN death. The characteristic timescale is the light-crossing time of the emission line region, a few thousand years, too short to correspond to a substantial population of relic RGs. Additional mechanisms of gas ionization, such as relic shocks from their past high power phase or stellar sources, should also be considered to account for the spectroscopic properties of the relic RGs. Relic RGs appear to be a mixed bag of sources in different phases of evolution, including AGN recently (~10,000 years ago) quenched, galaxies that have been inactive for at least one million years, and objects caught during the transition from a powerful RG to a low power FRI source.
From an optical spectroscopic survey of 3CR radio galaxies with z<0.3, we discovered a new spectroscopic class of powerful radio-loud AGN. The defining characteristics of these galaxies are that compared with radio galaxies of similar radio luminosit
y they have: a [O III]Hb ratio of ~0.5, indicative of an extremely low level of gas excitation; a large deficit of [O III] emission and radio core power. We interpret these objects as relic AGN, i.e. sources that experienced a large drop in their level of nuclear activity, causing a decrease in their nuclear and line luminosity. This class opens a novel approach to investigating lifetimes and duty cycles of AGN.
