Transient and Highly Polarized Double-Peaked Hα Emission in the Seyfert 2 Nucleus of NGC 2110
Abstract
We have discovered an extremely broad, double-peaked Hα emission line in the polarized flux spectrum of NGC 2110, establishing that this well-studied Seyfert 2 galaxy contains a disk-like hidden broad-line region (BLR). Several properties of NGC 2110 suggest that it is an obscured twin of Arp 102B, the prototypical double-peaked emission-line active galactic nucleus (AGN). A comparison between our data and previous spectra of NGC 2110 indicates that the double-peaked Hα feature is transient. The presence of a disk-like BLR in NGC 2110 has important implications for AGNs: it expands the range of properties exhibited by Seyfert 2 galaxies, and the fact that the BLR is obscured by a torus-like structure provides the first evidence that double-peaked emitters and classical Seyfert nuclei may have the same basic parsec-scale geometry.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- October 2007
- DOI:
- 10.1086/522697
- arXiv:
- arXiv:0708.3221
- Bibcode:
- 2007ApJ...668L..31M
- Keywords:
-
- Galaxies: Individual: NGC Number: NGC 2110;
- Galaxies: Seyfert;
- Polarization;
- Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 5 pages, including 3 postscript figures. Uses emulateapj. Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters