A Catalog of Host Galaxies for WISE-Selected AGN: Connecting Host Properties with Nuclear Activity and Identifying Contaminants

We present a catalog of physical properties for galaxies hosting active galactic nuclei (AGN) detected by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). By fitting broadband spectral energy distributions of sources in the WISE AGN Catalog (Assef et al. 2018) with empirical galaxy and AGN templates, we derive photometric redshifts, AGN bolometric luminosities, measures of AGN obscuration, host galaxy stellar masses, and host galaxy star formation rates (SFRs) for 695,273 WISE AGN. The wide-area nature of this catalog significantly augments the known number of obscured AGN out to redshifts of z~3 and will be useful for studies focused on AGN or their host galaxy physical properties. We first show that the most likely non-AGN contaminants are galaxies at redshifts of z=0.2-0.3, with relatively blue W1-W2 colors, and with high specific SFRs for which the dust continuum emission is elevated in the W2 filter. Toward increasingly lower redshifts, WISE AGN host galaxies have systematically lower specific SFRs, relative to those of normal star forming galaxies, likely due to decreased cold gas fractions and the time delay between global star formation and AGN triggering. Finally, WISE AGN obscuration is not strongly correlated with AGN bolometric luminosity but shows a significant negative correlation with Eddington ratio. This result is consistent with a version of the `receding torus model in which the obscuring material is located within the supermassive black hole gravitational sphere of influence and the dust inner radius increases due to radiation pressure.

Convergence of the self-dual $U(1)$-Yang-Mills-Higgs energies to the $(n-2)$-area functional

Given a hermitian line bundle $Lto M$ on a closed Riemannian manifold $(M^n,g)$, the self-dual Yang-Mills-Higgs energies are a natural family of functionals begin{align*} &E_epsilon(u, abla):=int_MBig(| abla u|^2+epsilon^2|F_ abla|^2+frac{(1-|u|^2)^2}{4epsilon^2}Big) end{align*} defined for couples $(u, abla)$ consisting of a section $uinGamma(L)$ and a hermitian connection $ abla$ with curvature $F_ abla$. While the critical points of these functionals have been well-studied in dimension two by the gauge theory community, it was shown in previous work of the second- and third-named authors that critical points in higher dimension converge as $epsilonto 0$ (in an appropriate sense) to minimal submanifolds of codimension two, with strong parallels to the correspondence between the Allen-Cahn equations and minimal hypersurfaces. In this paper, we complement this idea by showing the $Gamma$-convergence of $E_epsilon$ to ($2pi$ times) the codimension two area: more precisely, given a family of couples $(u_epsilon, abla_epsilon)$ with $sup_epsilon E_epsilon(u_epsilon, abla_epsilon)<infty$, we prove that a suitable gauge invariant Jacobian $J(u_epsilon, abla_epsilon)$ converges to an integral $(n-2)$-cycle $Gamma$, in the homology class dual to the Euler class $c_1(L)$, with mass $2 pi mathbb{M}(Gamma)leliminf_{epsilon rightarrow 0}E_epsilon(u_epsilon, abla_epsilon)$. We also obtain a recovery sequence for any integral cycle in this homology class. Finally, we apply these techniques to compare min-max values for the $(n-2)$-area from the Almgren-Pitts theory with those obtained from the Yang-Mills-Higgs framework, showing that the former values always provide a lower bound for the latter. As an ingredient, we also establish a Huisken-type monotonicity result along the gradient flow of $E_{epsilon}$.

Enhanced X-ray Emission from the Most Radio-Powerful Quasar in the Universes First Billion Years

We present deep (265 ks) Chandra X-ray observations of PSO J352.4034$-$15.3373, a quasar at z=5.831 that, with a radio-to-optical flux ratio of R>1000, is one of the radio-loudest quasars in the early universe and is the only quasar with observed extended radio jets of kpc-scale at $z gtrsim 6$. Modeling the X-ray spectrum of the quasar with a power law, we find a best fit of $Gamma = 1.99^{+0.29}_{-0.28}$, leading to an X-ray luminosity of $L_{2-10} = 1.26^{+0.45}_{-0.33} times 10^{45} {rm erg} {rm s}^{-1}$ and an X-ray to UV brightness ratio of $alpha_{rm OX} = -1.36 pm 0.11$. We identify a diffuse structure 50 kpc (${sim}8^{primeprime}$) to the NW of the quasar along the jet axis that corresponds to a $3sigma$ enhancement in the angular density of emission and can be ruled out as a background fluctuation with a probability of P=0.9985. While with few detected photons the spectral fit of the structure is uncertain, we find that it has a luminosity of $L_{2-10}sim10^{44} {rm erg} {rm s}^{-1}$. These observations therefore potentially represent the most distant quasar jet yet seen in X-rays. We find no evidence for excess X-ray emission where the previously-reported radio jets are seen (which have an overall linear extent of $0.^{primeprime}28$), and a bright X-ray point source located along the jet axis to the SE is revealed by optical and NIR imaging to not be associated with the quasar.

A Redshift for the First Einstein Ring, MG 1131+0456

MG 1131+0456 is a radio-selected gravitational lens, and is the first known Einstein ring. Discovered in 1988, the system consists of a bright radio source imaged into a ring and two compact, flat-spectrum components separated by 2.1 arcsec. The ring is optically faint (R = 23.3), rising steeply into the near- and mid-infrared (K = 17.8; W2 = 13.4). The system has been intensively studied in the intervening years, including high-resolution radio imaging, radio monitoring, and near-infrared imaging with Hubble and Keck. The lensing galaxy is at z(lens) = 0.844. However, to date, no spectroscopic redshift had been reported for the lensed source. Using archival Keck data from 1997, we report the robust detection of a single narrow emission line at 5438 Angstroms, which we associate with CIII] 1909 from a type-2 quasar at z(source) = 1.849. Support for this redshift identification comes from weaker emission associated with CIV 1549 and HeII 1640, typical of type-2 quasars, as well as the lack of emission lines in archival near-infrared Keck spectroscopy. We also present, for the first time, Cycle 1 Chandra observations of MG 1131+0456, which clearly resolves into two point sources with a combined flux of ~1e-13 erg/cm2/s and a best-fit column density of ~3e22 /cm2. We suggest a new method to identify candidate lensed active galactic nuclei from low-resolution X-ray surveys such as eROSITA by targeting sources that have anomalously high X-ray luminosity given their mid-infrared luminosity.

A luminous X-ray transient in SDSS J143359.16+400636.0: a likely tidal disruption event

We present the discovery of a luminous X-ray transient, serendipitously detected by Swifts X-ray Telescope (XRT) on 2020 February 5, located in the nucleus of the galaxy SDSS J143359.16+400636.0 at z=0.099 (luminosity distance $D_{rm L}=456$ Mpc). The transient was observed to reach a peak luminosity of $sim10^{44}$ erg s$^{-1}$ in the 0.3--10 keV X-ray band, which was $sim20$ times more than the peak optical/UV luminosity. Optical, UV, and X-ray lightcurves from the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) and Swift show a decline in flux from the source consistent with $t^{-5/3}$, and observations with NuSTAR and Chandra show a soft X-ray spectrum with photon index $Gamma=2.9pm0.1$. The X-ray/UV properties are inconsistent with well known AGN properties and have more in common with known X-ray tidal disruption events (TDE), leading us to conclude that it was likely a TDE. The broadband spectral energy distribution (SED) can be described well by a disk blackbody model with an inner disk temperature of $7.3^{+0.3}_{-0.8}times10^{5}$ K, with a large fraction ($>40$%) of the disk emission up-scattered into the X-ray band. An optical spectrum taken with Keck/LRIS after the X-ray detection reveals LINER line ratios in the host galaxy, suggesting low-level accretion on to the supermassive black hole prior to the event, but no broad lines or other indications of a TDE were seen. The stellar velocity dispersion implies the mass of the supermassive black hole powering the event is log($M_{rm BH}$/$M_{odot}$)$=7.41pm0.41$, and we estimate that at peak the Eddington fraction of this event was $sim$50%. This likely TDE was not identified by wide-field optical surveys, nor optical spectroscopy, indicating that more events like this would be missed without wide-field UV or X-ray surveys.

Chandra Observations of Candidate Sub-Parsec Binary Supermassive Black Holes

We present analysis of Chandra X-ray observations of seven quasars that were identified as candidate sub-parsec binary supermassive black hole (SMBH) systems in the Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey (CRTS) based on apparent periodicity in their optical light curves. Simulations predict close-separation accreting SMBH binaries will have different X-ray spectra than single accreting SMBHs, including harder or softer X-ray spectra, ripple-like profiles in the Fe K-$alpha$ line, and distinct peaks in the spectrum due to the separation of the accretion disk into a circumbinary disk and mini-disks around each SMBH. We obtained Chandra observations to test these models and assess whether these quasars could contain binary SMBHs. We instead find that the quasar spectra are all well fit by simple absorbed power law models, with the rest frame 2-10 keV photon indices, $Gamma$, and the X-ray-to-optical power slopes, $alpha_{rm OX}$, indistinguishable from the larger quasar population. This may indicate that these seven quasars are not truly sub-parsec binary SMBH systems, or it may simply reflect that our sample size was too small to robustly detect any differences. Alternatively, the X-ray spectral changes might only be evident at higher energies than probed by Chandra. Given the available models and current data, no firm conclusions are drawn. These observations will help motivate and direct further work on theoretical models of binary SMBH systems, such as modeling systems with thinner accretion disks and larger binary separations.

The Massive and Distant Clusters of WISE Survey VII: The Environments and Properties of Radio Galaxies in Clusters at z~1

We present the results from a study with NSFs Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) to determine the radio morphologies of extended radio sources and the properties of their host galaxies in 50 massive galaxy clusters at z~1. We find a majority of the radio morphologies to be Fanaroff-Riley (FR) type IIs. By analyzing the infrared counterparts of the radio sources, we find that ~40% of the host galaxies are the candidate brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) and ~83% are consistent with being one of the top six most massive galaxies in the cluster. We investigate the role of environmental factors on the radio-loud AGN population by examining correlations between environmental and radio-galaxy properties. We find that the highest stellar mass hosts ($M_{*} gtrsim$ 4$times 10^{11} M_{odot}$) are confined to the cluster center and host compact jets. There is evidence for an increase in the size of the jets with cluster-centric radius, which may be attributed to the decreased ICM pressure confinement with increasing radius. Besides this correlation, there are no other significant correlations between the properties of the radio-AGN (luminosity, morphology, or size) and environmental properties (cluster richness and location within the cluster). The fact that there are more AGN in the cluster environment than the field at this epoch, combined with the lack of strong correlation between galaxy and environmental properties, argues that the cluster environment fosters radio activity but does not solely drive the evolution of these sources at this redshift.

Scalar curvature and harmonic maps to $S^1$

For a harmonic map $u:M^3to S^1$ on a closed, oriented $3$--manifold, we establish the identity $$2pi int_{thetain S^1}chi(Sigma_{theta})geq frac{1}{2}int_{thetain S^1}int_{Sigma_{theta}}(|du|^{-2}|Hess(u)|^2+R_M)$$ relating the scalar curvature $R_M$ of $M$ to the average Euler characteristic of the level sets $Sigma_{theta}=u^{-1}{theta}$. As our primary application, we extend the Kronheimer--Mrowka characterization of the Thurston norm on $H_2(M;mathbb{Z})$ in terms of $|R_M^-|_{L^2}$ and the harmonic norm to any closed $3$--manifold containing no nonseparating spheres. Additional corollaries include the Bray--Brendle--Neves rigidity theorem for the systolic inequality $(min R_M)sys_2(M)leq 8pi$, and the well--known result of Schoen and Yau that $T^3$ admits no metric of positive scalar curvature.

Minimal submanifolds from the abelian Higgs model

Given a Hermitian line bundle $Lto M$ over a closed, oriented Riemannian manifold $M$, we study the asymptotic behavior, as $epsilonto 0$, of couples $(u_epsilon, abla_epsilon)$ critical for the rescalings begin{align*} &E_epsilon(u, abla)=int_MBig(| abla u|^2+epsilon^2|F_ abla|^2+frac{1}{4epsilon^2}(1-|u|^2)^2Big) end{align*} of the self-dual Yang-Mills-Higgs energy, where $u$ is a section of $L$ and $ abla$ is a Hermitian connection on $L$ with curvature $F_{ abla}$. Under the natural assumption $limsup_{epsilonto 0}E_epsilon(u_epsilon, abla_epsilon)<infty$, we show that the energy measures converge subsequentially to (the weight measure $mu$ of) a stationary integral $(n-2)$-varifold. Also, we show that the $(n-2)$-currents dual to the curvature forms converge subsequentially to $2piGamma$, for an integral $(n-2)$-cycle $Gamma$ with $|Gamma|lemu$. Finally, we provide a variational construction of nontrivial critical points $(u_epsilon, abla_epsilon)$ on arbitrary line bundles, satisfying a uniform energy bound. As a byproduct, we obtain a PDE proof, in codimension two, of Almgrens existence result of (nontrivial) stationary integral $(n-2)$-varifolds in an arbitrary closed Riemannian manifold.

Understanding extreme quasar optical variability with CRTS: II. Changing-state quasars

We present the results of a systematic search for quasars in the Catalina Real-time Transient Survey exhibiting both strong photometric and spectroscopic variability over a decadal baseline. We identify 73 sources with specific patterns of optical and mid-IR photometric behavior and a defined spectroscopic change. These Changing-State quasars (CSQs) form a higher luminosity sample to complement existing sets of Changing-Look AGN and quasars in the literature. The CSQs (by selection) exhibit larger photometric variability than the CLQs. The spectroscopic variability is marginally stronger in the CSQs than CLQs as defined by the change in H$beta$/[OIII] ratio. We find 36 sources with declining H$beta$ flux, 37 sources with increasing H$beta$ flux and discover seven sources with $z > 0.8$, further extending the redshift arm. Our CSQ sample compares to the literature CLQ objects in similar distributions of H$beta$ flux ratios and differential Eddington ratios between high (bright) and low (dim) states. Taken as a whole, we find that this population of extreme varying quasars is associated with changes in the Eddington ratio and the timescales imply cooling/heating fronts propagating through the disk.