The Mini AGN at the Center of the Elliptical Galaxy NGC 4552 with HST

TL;DR

This study investigates a variable UV-bright spike at the center of NGC 4552 using HST imaging and spectroscopy, revealing characteristics consistent with a low-luminosity active galactic nucleus caused by accretion onto a massive black hole.

Contribution

It provides detailed multi-epoch imaging and spectroscopic analysis of a mini-AGN in NGC 4552, demonstrating its variable nature and spectral properties, and suggesting a black hole accretion event as the cause.

Findings

The central spike brightened by a factor of 4.5 between 1991 and 1993.

The spike's luminosity decreased by a factor of 2.0 between 1993 and 1996.

The spectral lines indicate a broad and narrow component, consistent with AGN activity.

Abstract

The complex phenomenology shown by the UV-bright, variable spike first detected with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) at the center of the otherwise normal galaxy NGC 4552 is further investigated with both HST imaging (FOC) and spectroscopy (FOS). HST/FOC images taken in 1991, 1993, and 1996 in the near UV have been analyzed in a homogeneous fashion, showing that the central spike has brightened by a factor ~4.5 between 1991 and 1993, and has decreased its luminosity by a factor ~2.0 between 1993 and 1996. FOS spectroscopy extending from the near UV to the red side of the optical spectrum reveals a strong UV continuum over the spectrum of the underlying galaxy, along with several emission lines in both the UV and the optical ranges. In spite of the low luminosity of the UV continuum of the spike (~3*10^5 Lsolar), the spike is definitely placed among AGNs by current diagnostics based on the emission line intensity ratios, being just on the borderline between Seyferts and LINERs. Line profiles are very broad, and both permitted and forbidden lines are best modelled with a combination of broad and narrow components, with FWHM of ~3000 km s^-1 and ~700 km s^-1, respectively. This evidence argues for the variable central spike being produced by a modest accretion event onto a central massive black hole (BH), with the accreted material having possibly being stripped from a a star in a close fly by with the BH. The 1996 broad Halpha luminosity of this mini-AGN is ~5.6*10^37 erg s^-1, about a factor of two less than that of the nucleus of NGC 4395, heretofore considered to be the faintest known AGN.