First author: Daniele Rogantini
Outflows in active galactic nuclei (AGN) are considered a promising candidate for driving AGN feedback at large scales. However, without information on the density of these outflows, we cannot determine how much kinetic power they are imparting to the surrounding medium. Monitoring the response of the ionisation state of the absorbing outflows to changes in the ionising continuum provides the recombination timescale of the outflow, which is a function of the electron density.
First author: Y. Díaz
An interesting feature in active galactic nuclei (AGN) accreting at low rate is the weakness of the reflection features in their X-ray spectra, which can result from the gradual disappearance of the torus with decreasing accretion rates. It has been suggested that low luminosity AGN (LLAGN) would have a different reflector configuration compared with high luminosity AGN, either covering a smaller fraction of the sky or simply having less material.
First author: Tom Rose
Galaxies often contain large reservoirs of molecular gas which shape their evolution. This can be through cooling of the gas – which leads to star formation, or accretion onto the central supermassive black hole – which fuels AGN activity and produces powerful feedback. Molecular gas has been detected in early-type galaxies on scales of just a few tens to hundreds of solar masses by searching for absorption against their compact radio cores.
First author: Peter Breiding
Over 150 resolved, kpc-scale X-ray jets hosted by active galactic nuclei have been discovered with the Chandra X-ray Observatory. A significant fraction of these jets have an X-ray spectrum either too high in flux or too hard to be consistent with the high-energy extension of the radio-to-optical synchrotron spectrum, a subtype we identify as Multiple Spectral Component (MSC) X-ray jets. A leading hypothesis for the origin of the X-rays is the inverse-Compton scattering of the cosmic microwave background by the same electron population producing the radio-to-optical synchrotron spectrum (known as the IC/CMB model).
First author: Nadine H. Soliman
Partial dust obscuration in active galactic nuclei (AGN) has been proposed as a potential explanation for some cases of AGN variability. The dust-gas mixture present in AGN torii is accelerated by radiation pressure leading to the launching of an AGN wind. Dust under these conditions has been shown to be unstable to a generic class of fast growing resonant drag instabilities (RDIs). We present the first set of numerical simulations of radiation driven outflows that include explicit dust dynamics in conditions resembling AGN winds and discuss the implications of the RDIs on the morphology of the AGN torus, AGN variability, and the ability of the radiation to effectively launch a wind.
First author: G. C. Jones
Gaseous outflows are key phenomena in the evolution of galaxies, as they affect star formation (either positively or negatively), eject gas from the core or disk, and directly cause mixing of pristine and processed material. Active outflows may be detected through searches for broad spectral line emission or high-velocity gas, but it is also possible to determine the presence of past outflows by searching for extended reservoirs of chemically enriched molecular gas in the circumgalactic medium (CGM) around galaxies.
First author: W. Zhang
We study the Fourier time-lags due to the Comptonization of disc-emitted photons in a spherical, uniform, and stationary X-ray corona, which located on the rotational axis of the black hole. We use Monk, a general relativistic Monte-Carlo radiative transfer code, to calculate Compton scattering of photons emitted by a thin disc with a Novikov-Thorne temperature profile. We find that the model time-lags due to Comptonization remain constant up to a characteristic frequency and then rapidly decrease to zero at higher frequencies.
First author: Caleb Lammers
Despite the importance of feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGN) in models of galaxy evolution, observational constraints on the influence of AGN feedback on star formation remain weak. To this end, we have compared the star formation trends of 279 low-redshift AGN galaxies with 558 non-active control galaxies using integral field unit spectroscopy from the SDSS-IV MaNGA survey. With a Gaussian process-based methodology, we reconstruct non-parametric star formation histories in spatially-resolved spaxels covering the face of each galaxy.
First author: Z. Franklin Wang
We study the optical variability of a sample of candidate low-mass (dwarf ang Seyfert) active galactic nuclei (AGNs) using Zwicky Transient Facility g-band light curves. Our sample is compiled from broad-line AGNs in dwarf galaxies reported in the literature with single-epoch virial black hole (BH) masses in the range $M_{\rm{BH}} \sim 10^{4}$–$10^{8}\ M_{\odot}$. We measure the characteristic ``damping’’ timescale of the optical variability $\tau_{\rm{DRW}}$, beyond which the power spectral density flattens, of a final sample of 79 candidate low-mass AGNs with high-quality light curves.
First author: Megan Masterson
We present a multi-wavelength analysis of the galaxy cluster SPT-CL J0607-4448 (SPT0607), which is one of the most distant clusters discovered by the South Pole Telescope (SPT) at $z=1.4010\pm0.0028$. The high-redshift cluster shows clear signs of being relaxed with well-regulated feedback from the active galactic nucleus (AGN) in the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG). Using Chandra X-ray data, we construct thermodynamic profiles and determine the properties of the intracluster medium.
