The Central Region of the Nearby Seyfert 2 Galaxy NGC 4945 : A Pair of Spirals

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution observations and hydrodynamical simulations to reveal a pair of tightly wound spiral structures in the central region of NGC 4945, elucidating gas dynamics near its active nucleus.

Contribution

It presents a detailed hydrodynamical model of the circumnuclear gas in NGC 4945, highlighting the role of shocks and bar-driven resonances in shaping the spiral structures.

Findings

The velocity field is well reproduced by a hydrodynamical simulation.

The model indicates a pair of tightly wound spirals passing through the starburst ring.

The estimated mass inflow rate exceeds the AGN accretion rate by a factor of three.

Abstract

NGC 4945 is a Seyfert 2 galaxy at a distance of 3.82 Mpc. Its relative proximity has permitted a detailed SMA study of the circumnuclear molecular gas in a galaxy exhibiting an AGN. Based on an analysis of the high-resolution velocity field of the central region (20" X 20", 1" = 19 pc), we demonstrate that the S-shaped structure of the isovelocity contours is well reproduced by the numerical results of a two dimensional hydrodynamical simulation. In particular, the velocity structure is represented by the bending produced by a shock along the spiral density waves, which are excited at the outer-inner Lindblad resonance by a fast rotating bar. The simulated density map reveals a pair of tightly wound spirals in the center which pass through most of the ring-like (claimed to be a circumnuclear starburst ring by other authors) high intensity region in the observations as well as intersect several Pa$\alpha$ emission line knots located outside the ring-like region. The calculated mass inflow rate at a scale of 50 pc is about three times the inferred mass accretion rate of the AGN of NGC 4945. We find that self-gravity of the gas is important and should be included in our model for NGC 4945. The model is compared with the gas orbit model discussed in Lim et al. (2009), and it is shown that the hydrodynamic model provides a better match to the observed position-velocity diagram and, hence, provides a more reliable prediction of the outer inner Lindblad resonance position.