Spitzer-IRS high resolution spectroscopy of the 12\mu m Seyfert galaxies: I. First results

TL;DR

This study presents high-resolution Spitzer IRS spectra of 29 Seyfert galaxies, identifying new IR emission line diagnostics and analyzing the molecular gas properties to better understand AGN dominance.

Contribution

First high-resolution IR spectra of a subset of 12um Seyfert galaxies, introducing new emission line ratio diagnostics and extending PAH analysis for AGN characterization.

Findings

Effective IR diagnostics for AGN strength using emission line ratios.

The 11.25um PAH feature's ratio to H2 S(1) is constant across Seyfert types.

Estimated warm molecular gas temperatures (200-300K) and masses (1-10 million solar masses).

Abstract

The first high resolution Spitzer IRS 9-37um spectra of 29 Seyfert galaxies (about one quarter) of the 12um Active Galaxy Sample are presented and discussed. The high resolution spectroscopy was obtained with corresponding off-source observations. This allows excellent background subtraction, so that the continuum levels and strengths of weak emission lines are accurately measured. The result is several new combinations of emission line ratios, line/continuum and continuum/continuum ratios that turn out to be effective diagnostics of the strength of the AGN component in the IR emission of these galaxies. The line ratios [NeV]/[NeII], [OIV]/[NeII], already known, but also [NeIII]/[NeII] and [NeV]/[SiII] can all be effectively used to measure the dominance of the AGN. We extend the analysis, already done using the 6.2um PAH emission feature, to the equivalent width of the 11.25um PAH feature, which also anti-correlates with the dominance of the AGN. We measure that the 11.25um PAH feature has a constant ratio with the H_2 S(1) irrespective of Seyfert type, approximately 10 to 1. Using the ratio of accurate flux measurements at about 19um with the two spectrometer channels, having aperture areas differing by a factor 4, we measured the source extendness and correlated it with the emission line and PAH feature equivalent widths. The extendness of the source gives another measure of the AGN dominance and correlates both with the EWs of [NeII] and PAH emission. Using the rotational transitions of H$_2$ we were able to estimate temperatures (200-300K) and masses (1-10 x 10^6 M_sun), or significant limits on them, for the warm molecular component in the galaxies observed.