A multi-parameter statistical analysis of the connection between water maser emission and nuclear galactic activity
Abstract
Water mega-maser disks currently provide the most accurate and direct method for calculating distances to galaxies and for weighing supermassive black holes (SMBHs). Moreover, high spatial resolution radio mapping of these systems provides a direct view of the AGN accretion disk on sub-pc scales. It is thus of great importance to understand how the maser emission and the masing conditions relate to their host galaxies' properties, and in particular, with their nuclear nebular activity. We present here the results of a comprehensive multi-parameter analysis of high-quality photometric and spectroscopic measurements of galaxies surveyed for water maser emission. We use both individual parameter correlation analyses and a Principal Component Analysis to constrain the type and range of optical characteristics that best associate with various morphologies and strengths of water maser activity. We discuss these results in the frame of current proposed models of galactic evolution, and suggest that the mega-maser phenomenon could be related to a certain brief phase in the active galactic nucleus lifetime. This analysis provides new sophisticated yet feasible criteria for targeting these systems in new surveys with a projected four-fold increase in the detection rate.
- Publication:
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American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #223
- Pub Date:
- January 2014
- Bibcode:
- 2014AAS...22315027C