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3.7. Diffraction-limited IR speckle masking observations of the central regions of Seyfert galaxies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2016

M. Wittkowski
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Bonn, Germany Institut für Theoretische Astrophysik, Heidelberg, Germany
Y. Balega
Affiliation:
Special Astrophysical Observatory, Russia
T. Beckert
Affiliation:
Institut für Theoretische Astrophysik, Heidelberg, Germany
W.J. Duschl
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Bonn, Germany Institut für Theoretische Astrophysik, Heidelberg, Germany
K.-H. Hofmann
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Bonn, Germany
G. Weigelt
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Bonn, Germany

Extract

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We present speckle masking observations of Seyfert galaxies with the Russian 6 m telescope. Diffraction-limited resolution of 76 mas in the K-band was obtained for the first time. This resolution is similar to the resolution of recent MERLIN and VLA observations of galactic centers, thus allowing us to study the radio-IR spectrum of the same structures. Figure 1 shows the decreasing K-band visibility function of NGC 1068 and the contour plot of our reconstructed image. The results show that NGC 1068 is resolved with a FWHM diameter of 30 mas or 2 pc for an assumed Gaussian flux distribution. The image is elongated in northern direction, which is approximately the direction of the radio jet. In the right panel of figure 1 the observed flux values at 5,15 and 22 GHz (from) are plotted together with our K-band flux. The spectral index between 5 GHz and the K-band is approximately 1/3. This spectrum can be explained by synchrotron emission of quasi-monoenergetic relativistic electrons (as for our Galactic Center by). Assuming that the observed flux is mainly nuclear light (from, for example, scattering lobes above and below a torus, without absorption and re-emission) we use the same synchrotron model as has been used for the Galactic Center to explain our data. With this model, we find a source radius of R ∼ 1015 cm, a magnetic field of B ∼ 11 G, a electron number density of ne ∼ 1.1103 cm−3 and a mean electron energy of ∼ 2.7 GeV. The corresponding model spectrum is shown in the right panel of fig. 1. The observed flux value at 2.2 μm lies slightly above the model spectrum. This could be caused by flux contributions from additional components, for example, a central stellar cluster, an accretion disk or thermal radiation from a dusty torus. We have also observed the central regions of other galaxies. For example, for NGC 4151, we found a dominant central core, which is not resolved, and therefore has a diameter of < 20 mas.

Type
Part I. Stellar Cluster, Star Formation
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1998 

References

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