A new diagnostic to separate line emission from star formation, shocks, and AGNs simultaneously in IFU data
Date
2019-02-28
Authors
D'Agostino, Joshua
Kewley, Lisa
Groves, Brent Allan
Medling, Anne
Dopita, Michael
Thomas, Adam
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Blackwell Publishing
Abstract
In the optical spectra of galaxies, methods for the separation of line emission arising from star formation and an additional hard component, such as shocks or active galactic nuclei (AGNs), is well-understood and possible with current diagnostics. However, such diagnostics fail when attempting to separate and define line emission which arises from shocked gas, and that arising from AGNs. We present a new three-dimensional diagnostic diagram for integral field unit data which can simultaneously separate the line emission amongst star formation, shocks, and AGNs within a galaxy. We show that regions we define as AGN-dominated correlate well with the hard X-ray distribution in our test case NGC 1068, as well as with known regions of AGN activity in NGC 1068. Similarly, spaxels defined as shock-dominated correlate strongly with regions of high-velocity dispersion within the galaxy.
Description
Keywords
ISM: jets and outflows, galaxies: active, galaxies: evolution, galaxies: ISM, galaxies: Seyfert, galaxies: star formation
Citation
Collections
Source
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
Type
Journal article
Book Title
Entity type
Access Statement
Open Access