On the nuclear obscuration of H2O maser galaxies

TL;DR

This study investigates the obscuration and properties of H2O maser galaxies, revealing anti-correlations between iron line strength and optical thickness parameters, and identifying criteria for Compton-thick nuclei.

Contribution

It establishes quantitative criteria for identifying Compton-thick nuclear regions in H2O maser galaxies based on multi-wavelength properties.

Findings

Strong anti-correlations between EW(Ka) and optical thickness parameters.

18 H2O maser galaxies are classified as Compton-thick.

FIR-H2O luminosity relation aligns with Galactic maser sources.

Abstract

To shed light onto the circumnuclear environment of 22 GHz H2O maser galaxies, we have analyzed some of their multi-wavelength properties, including the far infrared luminosity (FIR), the luminosity of the [O III]\lambda5007 emission line, the nuclear X-ray luminosity, and the equivalent width of the neutral iron Ka emission line (EW (Ka)). Our statistical analysis includes a total of 85 sources, most of them harboring an active galactic nucleus (AGN). There are strong anti-correlations between EW (Ka) and two "optical thickness parameters", i.e. the ratios of the X-ray luminosity versus the presumably more isotropically radiated [O III] and far infrared (FIR) luminosities. Based on these anti-correlations, a set of quantitative criteria, EW (Ka) > 300eV, L_{2-10keV} < 2L_[O III] and L_{FIR} > 600L_{2-10keV} can be established for Compton-thick nuclear regions. 18 H2O maser galaxies belong to this category. There are no obvious correlations between the EW (Ka), the [O III] luminosity and the isotropic H2O maser luminosity. When comparing samples of Seyfert 2s with and without detected H2O maser lines, there seem to exist differences in EW (Ka) and the fraction of Compton-thick nuclei. This should be studied further. For AGN masers alone, there is no obvious correlation between FIR and H2O maser luminosities. However, including masers associated with star forming regions, a linear correlation is revealed. Overall, the extragalactic FIR-H2O data agree with the corresponding relation for Galactic maser sources, extrapolated by several orders of magnitude to higher luminosities.