The AGN Ionization Cones of NGC 5728 : I - Excitation and Nuclear
  Structure
  We explore the gas morphology and excitation mechanisms of the ionization
cones of the Type II Seyfert galaxy NGC 5728. Near-IR and optical data from the
SINFONI and MUSE IFUs on the VLT are combined with $HST$ optical images,
$Chandra$ X-ray data and VLA radio observations. The complex nuclear structure
has a star-forming (SF) ring with a diameter of 2 kpc. A radio jet impacts on
the ISM at about 200 pc from the nucleus, with the SN remnants in the SF ring
also present. Emission-line ratios of [Fe II] and H II show heavy extinction
towards the nucleus, moderate extinction in the SF ring and reduced extinction
in the ionization cones. The AGN is hidden by a dust bar with up to 19
magnitudes of visual extinction; the dust temperature at the nuclear position
is ~870 K. An X-ray jet is aligned with the ionization cones, and associated
with high-excitation emission lines of [Si VI] in a coronal-line region
extending 300 pc from the nucleus.
  Molecular hydrogen is spatially independent of the cones, concentrated in a
disk equatorial to the star-forming ring, but also showing entrainment along
the sides of the bicone. Gas masses for warm and cold H$_2$, H I and H II are
estimated, and the excitation mechanisms for ionized and molecular gas are
elucidated, from both optical (which shows a clean SF-AGN mixing sequence) and
infrared diagnostics (which show more complicated, multi-component excitation
regimes).
