The Nature of the UV Continuum in LINERs: A Variability Test

Details The Nature of the UV Continuum in LINERs: A Variability Test The Nature of the UV Continuum in LINERs: A Variability Test

Jul 2002

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002hst..prop.9454m&link_type=abstract

HST Proposal ID #9454

Computer Science

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Hst Proposal Id #9454

Scientific paper

LINERs may be the most common AGNs, and the signposts of accretion onto the massive black holes present in most galaxies. However, the LINER spectrum is the result of UV excitation, and, in at least some LINERs, a nuclear cluster of hot stars, rather than an AGN, dominates the energetics in the UV. Thus, it is still unknown if the UV continuum, or the optical emission lines it excites, have anything to do with an AGN. The demographics and accretion physics of low-luminosity AGNs hinge on this question. We propose to search for variability in a sample of 17 LINERs with compact UV nuclei. Variability can reveal an AGN component in the UV continuum, even when its light is not dominant. We will test systematically the handful of non-definitive reports of UV variability, and potentially quantify the AGN contribution to the UV emission. Variability in all or most objects will be strong evidence that LINERs mark dormant AGNs in most galaxies. Alternatively, a general null detection of variability will suggest that, even in LINERs with additional AGN signatures, the UV continuum is stellar in origin. Contemporaneous monitoring with the VLA/VLBA of 11 objects which have radio cores {five of which we already know are radio-variable} will reveal the relations between UV and radio variations. The UV-variable objects will be targeted for future, better-sampled, monitoring.

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