MIR spectra of AGNs heating molecular gas

We analyse 2015 mid-infrared (MIR) spectra of galaxies observed with Spitzer's Infrared Spectrograph, including objects with growing supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and objects where most of the infrared emission originates from newly formed stars. We determine if and how accreting SMBHs at the centre of galaxies - known as active galactic nuclei (AGNs) - heat and ionize their host galaxies' dust and molecular gas. We use four MIR diagnostics to estimate the contribution of the AGN to the total MIR emission. We refer to galaxies whose AGNs contribute more than 50 per cent of the total MIR emission as AGN dominated. We compare the relative strengths of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission features and find that PAH grains in AGN-dominated sources have a wider range of sizes and fractional ionizations than PAH grains in non-AGN-dominated sources. We measure rotational transitions of H_2_ and estimate H_2_ excitation temperatures and masses for individual targets, H_2_ excitation temperatures for spectra stacked by their AGN contribution to the MIR, and the H_2_ excitation temperature distributions via a hierarchical Bayesian model. Using the hierarchical Bayesian model, we find an average 200K difference between the excitation temperatures of the H_2_S(5) and H_2_S(7) pure rotational molecular hydrogen transition pair in AGN-dominated versus non-AGN-dominated galaxies. Our findings suggest that AGNs impact the interstellar medium of their host galaxies.

Cone search capability for table J/MNRAS/487/1823/table1 (properties)

Identifier
Source https://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/lp/custom/CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/487/1823
Related Identifier https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/MNRAS/487/1823
Related Identifier http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/MNRAS/487/1823
Metadata Access http://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/pmh/pubreg.xml?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_b2find&identifier=ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/487/1823
Provenance
Creator Lambrides E.L.; Petric A.O.; Tchernyshyov K.; Zakamska N.L.; Watts D.J.
Publisher CDS
Publication Year 2023
Rights https://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.html
OpenAccess true
Contact CDS support team <cds-question(at)unistra.fr>
Representation
Resource Type Dataset; AstroObjects
Discipline Astrophysics and Astronomy; Cosmology; Galactic and extragalactic Astronomy; High Energy Astrophysics; Interdisciplinary Astronomy; Interstellar medium; Natural Sciences; Observational Astronomy; Physics