Gallery
Near-infrared spectrum of an obscured quasar obtained with the EMIR infrared spectrograph on the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC). EMIR has allowed us to study the ionized and molecular gas outflows launched by a supermassive black hole in the obscured quasar J1509+0434 (Ramos Almeida et al. 2019). This analysis is important because outflows do not always show similar properties, which permits us to understand how these winds are produced and how they affect their host galaxies.
Near-infrared image of M51 (Spitzer IRAC 3.6 micron) with a blow-up showing its Seyfert 2 nucleus in radio continuum (VLA 3.6cm), where a radio jet and expanding plasma structures are visible. In Querejeta et al. (2016) we showed that, through this radio jet, the AGN of M51 is affecting the properties of the surrounding molecular gas and restricting its ability to form new stars.
Composite-colour HST image of NGC1068 combining H-alpha (red), I-band (orange), and V-band (blue). The top-right panel shows the kinematic model of the molecular torus in NGC1068 from García-Burillo et al. (2019). The arrows represent the velocity field of the gas in the torus and over the working surface of the AGN wind.
Expected incidence of dual active BH in equal-mass mergers of spiral galaxies (of Sb type) in the nearby universe, as a function of the merger timescale, τmer. Pdagn is the intrinsic fraction of binary mergers with active BH pairs and Pdagn,spec is the fraction of these mergers observable through double-peaked narrow line features in the optical window. The panels on each column show results for different thresholds of nuclear activity. The panels in the two top rows show results for a BH lifetime, τagn, of 10² Myr, while the two bottom rows depict results for τagn = 10 Myr. Individual predictions are represented with green dots, while large red open circles and error bars show the median and interquartile range of the subsets of results inferred from the same initial orbital eccentricity which increases from left to right in each panel. This figure is for mergers starting with a reduced orbital energy rcirc,p = 4/3.
Galaxies in the universe grow accreting matter from their surroundings and merging with other companion galaxies, continuously forming new aggregations in a process known as hierarchical clustering. High-resolution numerical simulations like the ones depicted in these four snapshots are essential to test theories for the origin of structure and to obtain a clear understanding of the different physical mechanisms involved in the build-up of galaxies, groups and clusters. Several members of this collaboration have developed an N-body model of a pre-virialized galaxy aggregation in a flat LambdaCDM universe to assess the role of the multiple mergers that take place during the formation of such systems in the configuration of the first-ranked remnants that assemble in their inner regions (Solanes et al. 2016; Perea & Solanes 2016).
Black hole mass estimations before (left) and after (right) CIV corrections. We carried out an analysis of the CIVλ1549Å and Hβ line profiles of 76 quasars to test whether the width of the high-ionization UV line CIVλ1549 could be used as a virial broadening estimator (and then as a substitute of Hβ at high z). We analyzed high S/N optical and near-infrared (NIR) spectra covering the redshifted lines over a broad range of luminosity 1043-3x1048 erg s−1 and redshift (0−3), following an approach based on the quasar Main Sequence (Marziani, P., del Olmo A., Martínez-Carballo M.A., et al. 2019).
Seyfert 2 IC5063 - Fitting to the 6 torus models, where you can see that the best fit is Hoenig & Kishimoto (2017) which include a clumpy torus plus a polar wind. The dust component of active galactic nuclei (AGN) produces a broad infrared spectral energy distribution (SED), whose power and shape depends on the fraction of the source absorbed, and the geometry of the absorber respectively. This emitting region is expected to be concentrated within the inner ∼5 pc of the AGN which makes almost impossible to image it with the current instruments. The study of the infrared SED by comparison between infrared AGN spectra and predicted models is one of the few ways to infer the properties of this dust component. We have analyzed and compare with real data for the first time all the torus available models , 6 in total which include smooth, clumpy and combination of both. Our conclusion is that most of these models can be discriminated using only mid-infrared spectroscopy as long as the host galaxy contribution is less than 50%. The best model describing sample is the clumpy disk-wind model (González-Martín, O., Masegosa, J., García-Bernete, I. et al. 2019a and González-Martín, O., Masegosa, J., García-Bernete, I. et al. 2019b).
Ground- and space-based spectra of the type-1 LINER NGC4450. The AGN broad component is visible only in the HST-STIS spectrum. We studied the 22 local (z < 0.025) type-1 LINERs from the Palomar survey, on the basis of optical space- (HST) and ground-based (3.5mCAHA and NOT) long-slit spectroscopy. Kinematics and fluxes of a set of emission lines, from Hβ λ4861 to [S II] λλ6716, 6731, and the absorption NaD λλ5890, 5896 were modeled and measured, after subtraction of the underlying starlight. We found that the broad Hα component is sometimes elusive in our ground-based spectroscopy, whereas it is ubiquitous for space-based data. The combination of optical diagnostic diagrams, theoretical models [for AGNs, post-asymptotic giant branch stars, and shocks] and the weak/strong-[O I] classification, points to the AGN as the dominant ionization mechanism in these LINERs, with shocks contribution. The emission line kinematics may indicate ionized outflows, preferentially seen in [OI]. However, NaD outflows appear to be less frequent (Cazzoli, S., Márquez, I., Masegosa, J. et al. 2018).