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Issue A&A Volume 500, Number 3, June IV 2009 Page(s) 1287 - 1325 Section Catalogs and data DOI 10.1051/0004-6361/200811225 Published online 29 April 2009

A&A 500, 1287-1325 (2009)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/200811225

OASIS integral-field spectroscopy of the central kpc in 11 Seyfert 2 galaxies

I. Stoklasová^{1, 2}, P. Ferruit³, E. Emsellem³, B. Jungwiert¹, E. Pécontal³, and S. F. Sánchez<sup>4

1</sup>  Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, v.v.i., Boční II 1401, 14131 Prague, Czech Republic
    e-mail: ivana@sirrah.troja.mff.cuni.cz
²  Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University in Prague, Ke Karlovu 3, 12161 Prague, Czech Republic
³  Université de Lyon, France; Université Lyon 1, 69007; CRAL, Observatoire de Lyon, 69230 Saint-Genis-Laval; CNRS, UMR 5574; ENS de Lyon, France
⁴  Centro Astronómico Hispano-Alemán, Calar Alto, CSIC-MPG, C/Jesús Durbán Remón 2-2, 04004 Almería, Spain

Received 24 October 2008 / Accepted 15 January 2009

Abstract
Aims. We examine the physical conditions of ionised gas in the central kiloparsec(s) of nearby Seyfert galaxies. Our aim is a detailed two-dimensional mapping of optical spectroscopic properties, searching for features in the emission structure and in gas kinematics which would be common to all the active galactic nuclei (AGN) or their class, and which would help us to understand the origin and nature of the circumnuclear gas, and its role in the AGN.
Methods. We map narrow-line regions (NLRs) of 11 nearby Seyfert 2 galaxies with the optical integral-field spectrograph OASIS mounted at CFHT. We model emission-line profiles of 5 forbidden-line doublets and 2 Balmer lines, correcting for the underlying stellar absorption by reconstructing stellar spectra with synthetic evolutionary stellar population models.
Results. For each of the 11 targets, we present 2D maps of surface brightness in the observed emission lines, diagnostic line intensity ratios, gas kinematics (mean line-of-sight velocity and velocity dispersion), electron density, and interstellar reddening, and we plot spatially resolved spectral-diagnostic diagrams. The stellar data are represented by maps of mean line-of-sight (LOS) velocities and of the relative mass fractions of the young stellar populations. The gas velocity fields in 80% of the sample exhibit twisted S-shaped isovelocity contours, which are signatures of non-circular orbits and indicate non-axisymmetric gravitational potentials, gas motions out of the galactic plane, or possible outflows and inflows. Based on the kinematic measurements, we identified a possible nuclear ring or radial gas flow in NGC 262 (Mrk 348), not reported before. Eight of the eleven observed objects exhibit strongly asymmetric or multi-component emission-line profiles, in most cases confined to an elongated region passing through the galactic centre, perpendicular to the major axis of emission.

Key words: galaxies: active -- galaxies: Seyfert -- methods: observational -- methods: data analysis -- techniques: spectroscopic -- galaxies: kinematics and dynamics

© ESO 2009

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