HST Observations of the Double-Peaked Emission Lines in the Seyfert Galaxy Markarian 78: Mass Outflows from a Single AGN

TL;DR

This study uses HST observations to analyze the double-peaked emission lines in Mrk 78, concluding they result from asymmetric outflows from a single AGN rather than dual black holes.

Contribution

It provides a detailed kinematic model demonstrating that double emission lines can be explained by outflow geometry in a single AGN, challenging the dual AGN hypothesis.

Findings

Double emission lines are caused by asymmetric outflows.

A single AGN model can reproduce observed velocity offsets.

The geometry of outflows explains spectral features without dual black holes.

Abstract

Previous ground based observations of the Seyfert 2 galaxy Mrk 78 revealed a double set of emission lines, similar to those seen in several AGN from recent surveys. Are the double lines due to two AGN with different radial velocities in the same galaxy, or are they due to mass outflows from a single AGN?We present a study of the outflowing ionized gas in the resolved narrow-line region (NLR) of Mrk 78 using observations from Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and Faint Object Camera (FOC) aboard the Hubble Space Telescope(HST) as part of an ongoing project to determine the kinematics and geometries of active galactic nuclei (AGN) outflows. From the spectroscopic information, we deter- mined the fundamental geometry of the outflow via our kinematics modeling program by recreating radial velocities to fit those seen in four different STIS slit positions. We determined that the double emission lines seen in ground-based spectra are due to an asymmetric distribution of outflowing gas in the NLR. By successfully fitting a model for a single AGN to Mrk 78, we show that it is possible to explain double emission lines with radial velocity offsets seen in AGN similar to Mrk 78 without requiring dual supermassive black holes.