The MURALES survey. I. A dual AGN in the radio galaxy 3C459?
B. Balmaverde (1), A. Capetti, A. Marconi, G. Venturi, M. Chiaberge,, R.D. Baldi, S. Baum, R. Gilli, P. Grandi, E. Meyer, G. Miley, C. O'Dea, W., Sparks, E. Torresi, G. Tremblay (1) INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera

TL;DR
This study uses VLT/MUSE observations to identify a dual AGN system in the radio galaxy 3C459, revealing complex ionized gas structures and providing evidence for a recent merger involving a radio loud AGN and a type 2 QSO.
Contribution
First detailed spectroscopic evidence for a dual AGN in 3C459, combining ionized gas morphology, kinematics, and line ratios to distinguish between AGN and jet-cloud interaction.
Findings
Detection of two compact emission regions with distinct velocities and line ratios.
Evidence supporting a dual AGN system rather than jet-cloud interaction.
Identification of a high-ionization bicone associated with N2.
Abstract
We observed the FRII radio galaxy 3C459 (z=0.22) with the MUSE spectrograph at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) as part of the MURALES project (a MUse RAdio Loud Emission line Snapshot survey). We detected diffuse nuclear emission and a filamentary ionized gas structure forming a one-sided, triangular-shaped region extending out to 80 kpc. The central emission line region is dominated by two compact knots of similar flux: the first (N1) cospatial with the radio core and the (N2) second located 1.2" (5.3 kpc) to the SE. The two regions differ dramatically from the point of view of velocity (with an offset of ~400 km/s), line widths, and line ratios. This suggests that we are observing a dual AGN system formed by a radio loud AGN and type 2 QSO companion, which is the result of the recent merger that also produced its disturbed host morphology. The alternative possibility that N2 is…
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