Forgotten treasures in the HST/FOC UV imaging polarimetric archives of active galactic nuclei. II. Mrk 463E

TL;DR

This study uses archival HST polarimetric data to map the UV polarization of Mrk 463E, revealing its geometry, inclination, and a connecting magnetic streamer, providing new insights into galaxy merging and AGN structure.

Contribution

It presents the first high-resolution UV polarization map of Mrk 463E, uncovering its geometric configuration, inclination, and a magnetic streamer linking it to its companion galaxy.

Findings

The nucleus is located south of the optical peak.

The polarized wind has a half-opening angle of ~15°.

A magnetic streamer connects Mrk 463E and W.

Abstract

The Mrk 463 system is known to host two powerful sources separated by about 4 kpc, both identified as active galactic nuclei (AGN). This makes the Mrk 463 system a unique laboratory to study the geometry and dynamics of galaxy merging and its relation to AGN duty cycles. The eastern nuclei, Mrk 463E, is the brightest of the two and thus a prime target for a polarimetric study. It is classified as a Seyfert 2 galaxy, meaning that one could expect large polarization degrees from scattering off electrons and dust in the polar winds. In the continuity of our series of papers, we reduced archived and previously unpublished polarization observations obtained with the Faint Object Camera (FOC) onboard the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), to obtain a high resolution near ultraviolet (near-UV) polarization map of the Mrk 463E nuclei. We coupled this map to near infrared (NIR) and X-ray observations to get a clear picture of the geometric arrangement of matter around the core of Mrk 463E. We found that the nucleus location is further South from the optical peak flux than previously estimated. The strongly polarized conical wind has a half-opening angle of ~15{\deg} and display three main periods of mass ejection. Its polarization allowed us to estimate the AGN inclination towards the observer (~55{\deg}) Finally, our maps revealed a streamer connecting Mrk 463E and Mrk 463W, with a tentative detection of a large kpc-scale ordered magnetic field connecting both galaxies. This unpublished observation turned out to offer more than the original proposal asked for and allowed to derive tight geometric and dynamical constraints for Mrk 463E. High resolution radio maps and IR polarimetry are now necessary to further study the jet and the newly discovered streamer.