Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2004-04-21
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
4 pages, 1 figure, to appear in the proceedings of IAU Symposium 222 "The Interplay among Black Holes, Stars and ISM in Galact
Scientific paper
10.1017/S1743921304002285
For the past 10 years there has been an active debate over whether fast shocks play an important role in ionizing emission line regions in Seyfert galaxies. To investigate this claim, we have studied the Seyfert 2 galaxy Mkn 78, using HST UV/optical images and spectroscopy. Since Mkn 78 provides the archetypal jet-driven bipolar velocity field, if shocks are important anywhere they should be important in this object. Having mapped the emission line fluxes and velocity field, we first compare the ionization conditions to standard photoionization and shock models. We find coherent variations of ionization consistent with photoionization model sequences which combine optically thick and thin gas, but are inconsistent with either autoionizing shock models or photoionization models of just optically thick gas. Furthermore, we find absolutely no link between the ionization of the gas and its kinematic state, while we do find a simple decline of ionization degree with radius. We feel this object provides the strongest case to date against the importance of shock related ionization in Seyferts.
Nelson Charles H.
Rosario David J.
Silverman John D.
Whittle Mark
Wilson Andrew S.
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