The nuclear and extended mir-infrared emission of Seyfert galaxies

Garcia-Bernete, I.; Ramos Almeida, C.; Acosta-Pulido, J. A.; et al.
Referencia bibliográfica

Active Galactic Nuclei: what's in a name? Proceedings of a conference held 27 June - 1 July, 2016 in Garching, id.16

Fecha de publicación:
8
2016
Número de autores
4
Número de autores del IAC
3
Número de citas
0
Número de citas referidas
0
Descripción
We present subarcsecond resolution mid-infrared (MIR) images obtained with 8-10 m-class ground-based telescopes of a complete volume-limited (DL<40 pc) sample of 24 Seyfert galaxies selected from the Swift/BAT nine month Catalog. We use those MIR images to study the nuclear and circumnuclear emission of the galaxies. Using different methods to classify the MIR morphologies on scales of ~200 pc, we found that the majority of the galaxies (75-79%) are extended or possibly extended and 21-25 % are point-like. In general, we find that galaxies with larger inclinations show more extended morphologies than face-on galaxies, and we do not find significant differences between the morphologies of Sy1 and Sy2. This extended emission is weak and compact and it represents ~30% of the total MIR emission of the galaxies in the sample. We obtain nuclear and circumnuclear MIR fluxes to investigate their correlation with different AGN and star formation indicators. We find that the nuclear MIR emission (inner ~70 pc) is strongly correlated with the X-ray emission (the harder the X-rays the better the correlation) and with the [O IV]λ25.89 micron emission line. We find the same results, although with more scatter, for the circumnuclear MIR emission. This indicates that AGN photoionization is the dominant source of excitation of the nuclear and circumnuclear MIR emission.