Very Long Baseline Array Imaging of Type-2 Seyferts with Double-peaked Narrow Emission Lines: Searches for Sub-kpc Dual AGNs and Jet-powered Outflows
Abstract
This paper presents Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) observations of 13 double-peaked [O III] emission-line type-2 active galactic nuclei (AGNs) at redshifts 0.06 < z < 0.41 (with a median redshift of z ∼ 0.15) identified in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Such double-peaked emission-line objects may result from jets or outflows from the central engine or from a dual AGN. The VLBA provides an angular resolution of ≲10 pc at the distance of many of these galaxies, sufficient to resolve the radio emission from extremely close dual AGNs and to contribute to understanding the origin of double-peaked [O III] emission lines. Of the 13 galaxies observed at 3.6 cm (8.4 GHz), we detect six at a 1σ sensitivity level of ∼0.15 mJy beam-1, two of which show clear jet structures on scales ranging from a few milliarcseconds to tens of milliarcseconds (corresponding to a few pc to tens of pc at a median redshift of 0.15). We suggest that radio-loud, double-peaked emission-line type-2 AGNs may be indicative of jet produced structures, but a larger sample of double-peaked [O III] AGNs with high angular resolution radio observations will be required to confirm this suggestion.
Based, in part, on observations made with the Very Long Baseline Array, obtained at the Long Baseline Observatory. The Long Baseline Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.- Publication:
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The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- February 2018
- DOI:
- 10.3847/1538-4357/aaab47
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1709.03561
- Bibcode:
- 2018ApJ...854..169L
- Keywords:
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- black hole physics;
- galaxies: active;
- galaxies: interactions;
- galaxies: nuclei;
- galaxies: Seyfert;
- radio continuum: galaxies;
- Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies
- E-Print:
- 14 pages, 7 figures