The central kpc of edge-on AGN

TL;DR

This study uses near-infrared imaging and spectroscopy to analyze the stellar populations, ionization mechanisms, and gas kinematics in the central kiloparsec of an edge-on active galactic nucleus, revealing detailed physical conditions.

Contribution

It combines NIR imaging and integral field spectroscopy to disentangle stellar, dust, and gas contributions in the central region of an edge-on AGN, providing new insights into its structure.

Findings

Identification of multiple emission lines and their ionization sources

Detailed mapping of extinction across the central region

Stellar population analysis through absorption features

Abstract

The NIR is less influenced by dust extinction than optical light. This enables us to look to an extent through dusty regions. In addition, it is sensitive to the mass-dominating stellar population. The combination of NIR imaging and spectroscopy of the VLT integral field spectrograph SINFONI gives us the opportunity to analyze several emission and absorption lines and to investigate the stellar population and ionization mechanisms over a field of view (FOV) of 4x4 square arcsec. We detect several emission lines ([Si VI], Pa\alpha, Br\gamma, H_2, [Fe II]) and analyze these to disentangle the ionization mechanisms and the kinematics of the gas. We use the absorption features of Si I, CO(6-3) and CO(2-0) and the large wavelength range of H+K-band for a thorough continuum synthesis. We fit a stellar, dust and power-law contribution together with an extinction component to the H+K-band emission. The result presents regions dominated by the different contributors and extinction information over the full FOV.