| Issue |
A&A
Volume 429, Number 2, January II 2005
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Page(s) | L21 - L24 | |
| Section | Letters | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:200400107 | |
| Published online | 17 December 2004 | |
Letter to the Editor
The merging/AGN connection
II. Ionization of the circumnuclear regions
1
Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam, And der Sternwarte 16, 14482 Potsdam, Germany e-mail: ssanchez@aip.de
2
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, 38205 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
3
Isaac Newton Group, Apt. 321, 38700 Santa Cruz de La Palma, Spain
Received:
17
September
2004
Accepted:
17
November
2004
We report the first results of a study of a sample of 20 galaxy mergers/interacting systems, using the VIMOS and PMAS integral field spectrographs. For each object, we extracted the integrated spectrum of the central regions and analyzed the ionization state using classical diagnostic diagrams [CITE]. There is evidence of AGN ionization in 4 of the objects, i.e. 20% of the sample, a considerably higher fraction than found in previous studies (~4%). An increase of the nuclear activity with the far infrared temperature may account for the difference.
Key words: galaxies: active / galaxies: interactions / galaxies: irregular / galaxies: ISM
© ESO, 2005
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