41578027
Nuclear Star Formation Activity and Black Hole Accretion in Nearby Seyfert Galaxies
Recent theoretical and observational works indicate the presence of a correlation between the star-formation rate (SFR) and active galactic nucleus (AGN) luminosity (and, therefore, the black hole accretion rate, Ṁ_(BH) of Seyfert galaxies. This suggests a physical connection between the gas-forming stars on kpc scales and the gas on sub-pc scales that is feeding the black hole. We compiled the largest sample of Seyfert galaxies to date with high angular resolution (~0.''4-0.''8) mid-infrared (8-13 μm) spectroscopy. The sample includes 29 Seyfert galaxies drawn from the AGN Revised Shapley-Ames catalog. At a median distance of 33 Mpc, our data allow us to probe nuclear regions on scales of ~65 pc (median value). We found no general evidence of suppression of the 11.3 μm polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission in the vicinity of these AGN, and we used this feature as a proxy for the SFR. We detected the 11.3 μm PAH feature in the nuclear spectra of 45% of our sample. The derived nuclear SFRs are, on average, five times lower than those measured in circumnuclear regions of 600 pc in size (median value). However, the projected nuclear SFR densities (median value of 22 M_☉ yr^(–1) kpc^(–2)) are a factor of 20 higher than those measured on circumnuclear scales. This indicates that the SF activity per unit area in the central ~65 pc region of Seyfert galaxies is much higher than at larger distances from their nuclei. We studied the connection between the nuclear SFR and Ṁ_(BH) and showed that numerical simulations reproduce our observed relation fairly well.
73697143
Spitzer Mid-IR Spectroscopy of Powerful 2?Jy and 3CRR Radio Galaxies. I. Evidence against a Strong Starburst-AGN Connection in Radio-loud AGN
We present deep Spitzer/Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) spectra for complete samples of 46 2 Jy radio galaxies (0.05 75%) than their more extended counterparts (≈15%-25%). We discuss this result in the context of a possible bias toward the selection of compact radio sources triggered in gas-rich environments.
118465353
Testing the AGN Unification Model in the Infrared
We present near-to-mid-infrared spectral energy distributions (SEDs) for 21 Seyfert galaxies, using subarcsecond resolution imaging data. Our aim is to compare the properties Seyfert 1 (Sy1) and Seyfert 2 (Sy2) tori using clumpy torus models and a Bayesian approach to fit the infrared (IR) nuclear SEDs. These dusty tori have physical sizes smaller than 6 pc radius, as derived from our fits. Active galactic nuclei (AGN) unification schemes account for a variety of observational differences in terms of viewing geometry. However, we find evidence that strong unification may not hold, and that the immediate dusty surroundings of Sy1 and Sy2 nuclei are intrinsically different. The Type 2 tori studied here are broader, have more clumps, and these clumps have lower optical depths than those of Type 1 tori. The larger the covering factor of the torus, the smaller the probability of having direct view of the AGN, and vice-versa. In our sample, Sy2 tori have larger covering factors (CT = 0.95±0.02) and smaller escape probabilities than those of Sy1 (CT = 0.5±0.1). Thus, on the basis of the results presented here, the classification of a Seyfert galaxy may depend more on the intrinsic properties of the torus rather than on its mere inclination, in contradiction with the simplest unification model.
118514386
The Mid-Infrared Emission of Seyfert Galaxies: A New Analysis of ISOCAM Data
We present mid-infrared data of a sample of 57 AGNs obtained with the instrument ISOCAM on board the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) satellite. The images were obtained through the LW2 (6.75 μm) and LW7 (9.62 μm) filters. This is a new analysis of the Clavel et al. galaxy sample, which is divided into 26 type 1 (≤1.5) and 28 type 2 (>1.5) Seyfert galaxies, plus three QSOs. The spatial resolution of the images allows us to separate the nuclear and the extended contributions to the total emission after decomposing the brightness profiles into different morphological components. The most common components are a central point source (identified as the active nucleus) and an exponential disk. In some cases a bulge, a bar, or a ring are needed. The relative contribution of the nucleus to the total emission appears larger in Seyfert 1 than in Seyfert 2 types. This result confirms that both types of Seyfert galaxies are different in the mid-infrared wavelength range and supports the existence of a structure which produces anisotropic emission in this wavelength range. We have also explored correlations between the mid-infrared and the radio and X-ray wavelength ranges. The well-established radio/infrared correlation is maintained in our sample for the global emission of the galaxies. If only the nuclear infrared emission is considered, then a nonlinear correlation is apparent in the luminosity-luminosity scatter diagram. The ratio between the intrinsic hard X-ray and the nuclear mid-infrared emission presents large scatter and slightly larger values for type 2 Seyfert galaxies. These results seem to be consistent with the presence of a clumpy dusty torus surrounding the active nucleus.
119099152
Constraining clumpy dusty torus models using optimized filter sets
Recent success in explaining several properties of the dusty torus around the central engine of active galactic nuclei has been gathered with the assumption of clumpiness. The properties of such clumpy dusty tori can be inferred by analyzing spectral energy distributions (SEDs), sometimes with scarce sampling given that large aperture telescopes and long integration times are needed to get good spatial resolution and signal. We aim at using the information already present in the data and the assumption of clumpy dusty torus, in particular, the CLUMPY models of Nenkova et al., to evaluate the optimum next observation such that we maximize the constraining power of the new observed photometric point. To this end, we use the existing and barely applied idea of Bayesian adaptive exploration, a mixture of Bayesian inference, prediction and decision theories. The result is that the new photometric filter to use is the one that maximizes the expected utility, which we approximate with the entropy of the predictive distribution. In other words, we have to sample where there is larger variability in the SEDs compatible with the data with what we know of the model parameters. We show that Bayesian adaptive exploration can be used to suggest new observations, and ultimately optimal filter sets, to better constrain the parameters of the clumpy dusty torus models. In general, we find that the region between 10 and 200 um produces the largest increase in the expected utility, although sub-mm data from ALMA also prove to be useful. It is important to note that here we are not considering the angular resolution of the data, which is key when constraining torus parameters. Therefore, the expected utilities derived from this methodology must be weighted with the spatial resolution of the data.
85559795
The Nuclear Infrared Emission of Low-Luminosity AGN
We have obtained high-resolution mid-infrared (MIR) imaging, nuclear spectral energy distributions (SEDs) and archival Spitzer spectra for 22 low-luminosity active galactic nuclei (LLAGN; Lbol < 5 × 1042 erg s−1). Infrared (IR) observations may advance our understanding of the accretion ows in LLAGN, the fate of the obscuring torus at low accretion rates, and, perhaps, the star formation histories of these objects. However, while comprehensively studied in higher-luminosity Seyferts and quasars, the nuclear IR properties of LLAGN have not yet been well-determined. In these proceedings we summarise the results for the LLAGN at the relatively high-luminosity, high-Eddington ratio end of the sample. Strong, compact nuclear sources are visible in the MIR images of these objects, with luminosities consistent with or slightly in execss of that predicted by the standard MIR/X-ray relation. Their broadband nuclear SEDs are diverse; some resemble typical Seyfert nuclei, while others possess less of a well-defined MIR "dust bump". Strong silicate emission is present in many of these objects. We speculate that this, together with high ratios of silicate strength to hydrogen column density, could suggest optically thin dust and low dust-to-gas ratios, in accordance with model predictions that LLAGN do not host a Seyfert-like obscuring torus.
119420739
Long lived oscillons from asymmetric bubbles: Existence and stability
The possibility that extremely long-lived, time-dependent, and localized field configurations (``oscillons'') arise during the collapse of asymmetrical bubbles in 2+1 dimensional phi^4 models is investigated. It is found that oscillons can develop from a large spectrum of elliptically deformed bubbles. Moreover, we provide numerical evidence that such oscillons are: a) circularly symmetric; and b) linearly stable against small arbitrary radial and angular perturbations. The latter is based on a dynamical approach designed to investigate the stability of nonintegrable time-dependent configurations that is capable of probing slowly-growing instabilities not seen through the usual ``spectral'' method.
18845039
Topologically massive non-abelian BF models in arbitrary space–time dimensions
Abstract This work extends to the D -dimensional space–time the topological mass generation mechanism of the non-abelian BF model in four dimensions. In order to construct the gauge invariant non-abelian kinetic terms for a ( D -2)-form B and a 1-form A , we introduce an auxiliary ( D -3)-form V . Furthermore, we obtain a complete set of BRST and anti-BRST transformation rules of the fields using the so-called horizontality condition, and construct a BRST/anti-BRST invariant quantum action for the model in D -dimensional space–time.
120573076
FORM OF THE QUANTUM KINETIC-ENERGY OPERATOR WITH SPATIALLY VARYING EFFECTIVE MASS
119975338
The superspace gauging of (2, 0) non-linear sigma models in the presence of torsion
Abstract The coupling of the (2, 0) Yang-Mills supermultiplets to non-linear sigma models is carried out in (2, 0) superspace by means of the gauge of the target space isometry group.
119031869
Topological gravity, the hierarchy problem and axion physics
In the last years higher dimensional physics has won importance. Despite the Superstrings, higher dimensional effects, in measurable scales of energy (some TeV), became only possible with Randall-Sundrum's models (RS). In particular, recent studies in neutrino and axion physics have proposed new and interesting questions about neutrino mixings and new scales intermediating the Weak and Planck scales. In this work we discuss field theoretic models that in some aspects are similar to the RS models. Indeed, our models contain domain walls, solitonic-like objects that mimics the branes of the RS models. Applications are discussed ranging from topological field theories in higher dimensions until models containing D=5 space-time torsion in the RS scenario. In particular, we talk about subjects related to topological gravity, the hierarchy problem and axion physics. The topological terms studied are generalizations for $D>4$ of the axion-foton coupling in D=4. Such procedure involves naturally the Kalb-Ramond field. By dimensional reductions we obtain topological terms of the $B\wedge F$ type in D=4 Chern-Simons-like and $B\wedge\partial\phi$ type both in D=3.