Issue |
A&A
Volume 507, Number 3, December I 2009
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | L57 - L60 | |
Section | Letters | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/200913512 | |
Published online | 04 November 2009 |
A&A 507, L57-L60 (2009)
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Exploring the inner region of type 1 AGNs with the Keck interferometer
M. Kishimoto1 - S. F. Hönig1 - R. Antonucci2 - T. Kotani3 - R. Barvainis4 - K. R. W. Tristram1 - G. Weigelt1
1 - Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69,
53121 Bonn, Germany
2 -
Physics
Department, University of California, Santa Barbara 93106,
USA
3 - ISAS, JAXA, 3-1-1 Yoshinodai, Sagamihara, Kanagawa
229-8510, Japan
4 - National
Science Foundation, 4301 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington,
VA 22230, USA
Accepted 20 October 2009 / Accepted 3 November 2009
Abstract
The exploration of extragalactic objects with long-baseline
interferometers in the near-infrared has been very limited. Here we
report successful observations with the Keck interferometer at
K-band (2.2 m) for four type 1 AGNs, namely NGC 4151, Mrk231,
NGC 4051, and the QSO IRAS 13349+2438 at z=0.108. For the latter
three objects, these are the first long-baseline interferometric
measurements in the infrared. We detect high visibilities (
-0.9) for all the four objects including NGC 4151, for
which we confirm the high V2 level measured by Swain et al. (2003, ApJ, 596, L163). We marginally detect a decrease of V2 with increasing
baseline lengths for NGC 4151, although over a very limited range,
where the decrease and absolute V2 are well fitted with a ring
model having a radius of 0.45
0.04 mas (0.039
0.003 pc).
Strikingly, this matches independent radius measurements from
optical-infrared reverberations that are thought to be probing the
dust sublimation radius. We also show that the effective radius of
the other objects, obtained from the same ring model, is either
roughly equal to or slightly larger than the reverberation radius as
a function of AGN luminosity. This suggests that we are indeed
partially resolving the dust sublimation region. The ratio of the
effective ring radius to the reverberation radius might also give us
an approximate probe for the radial structure of the inner accreting
material in each object. This should be scrutinized with further
observations.
Key words: galaxies: active - galaxies: Seyfert - infrared: galaxies - techniques: interferometric
1 Introduction
The exploration of extragalactic objects, or in particular, Active
Galactic Nuclei (AGNs), with long-baseline interferometers in the
near-infrared (near-IR) has been very limited. While the brightest
type 1 AGN NGC 4151 and type 2 AGN NGC 1068 have been observed by
Swain et al. (2003) and Wittkowski et al. (2004), respectively, further
exploration has been hampered mainly by technical difficulties. Here
we report successful observations of four type 1 AGNs with the Keck
interferometer (KI) in the near-IR (K-band 2.2 m). Type 1 AGNs
are thought to give us a direct view of the innermost region of the
putative dust torus as well as the central accretion disk, where the
interesting effect of the latter should also be carefully evaluated.
2 Keck interferometry
2.1 Observations and data reduction
We observed four AGNs listed in Table 1 and associated calibrators with the Keck Interferometer (KI, Colavita & Wizinowich 2003) on 2009 May 15 (UT). These four targets were chosen based on their bright optical magnitudes measured from the pre-imaging data obtained in April 2009 at Tiki Observatory (French Polynesia) and Silver Spring Observatory (USA) by Teamo, Pelle, and Levin.
The KI combines the two beams from the two Keck 10 m telescopes which
are separated by 85 m along the direction 38
east of
north. Adaptive Optics correction was implemented at each telescope,
locking on the nucleus in the visible wavelengths. The data
were obtained with a fringe tracker rate of 200 Hz operated at K-band,
while the angle-tracking was performed at H-band. The data were first
reduced with
Kvis
to produce raw squared visibility (V2) data averaged over blocks of 5 s each.
Then those blocks with a phase rms jitter larger than 0.8 radian were
excluded. For a given visit of each object, the blocks with an AO
wavefront sensor flux smaller than the median by 20% or more were
also excluded. The rejected blocks were 6% of all the blocks.
They were generally outliers in the visibility measurements for a
given visit and quite often were of low fractional fringe-lock time.
Then the wide-band side of the data were further reduced using wbCalib
with the correction for the flux ratio
between two telescope beams and the correction for a flux bias (slight
systematic decrease of the KI's system visibility for lower injected
flux
). The jitter correction was applied with a
coefficient of 0.04 (Colavita 1999). Finally the blocks were
averaged into scans over a few minutes each, with its error estimated
as a standard deviation within a scan.
Figure 1 shows the observed visibilities of all the
targets and calibrators (after the corrections above), plotted against
the observing time. All the six calibrators used are expected to be
unresolved by the KI at K-band (
). Overall, the system
visibility (
), as measured by these calibrators, was quite
stable over the night. The calibrators span over a relatively wide
range of brightness (see the legend in Fig. 1), and one
of them (HD 111422) had approximately the same injected flux counts as
those of NGC 4151 and Mrk231. Based on the corrected visibilities of
these calibrators shown in Fig. 1, the flux bias seems
to have been taken out quite well, although there might still be some
systematics left. The visibilities of the three faint calibrators
(K>9.1) tend to be slightly smaller than those of the other brighter
ones, with the difference of the means between the former and latter
being
0.9% of the means. Therefore we assign 0.01 as a
possible systematic uncertainty in system visibility estimations.
Note that for the faintest target NGC 4051, the flux bias correction
was effectively used with a slight extrapolation (by 1 mag
in K-band
). This should be checked with future
fainter calibrator observations.
For each target measurement,
was estimated from these
calibrator observations with wbCalib using its time
and sky proximity weighting scheme, yielding
indicated as
gray circles in Fig. 1. The final calibrated
visibilities are shown in Fig. 2, with the sampled uvpoints shown in the inset of Fig. 2.
Table 1: Properties of our targets and summary of the results of our KI observations on 15 May 2009 (UT).
![]() |
Figure 1: Observed V2 plotted against observing time. Gray dots are individual measurements for blocks of 5 s each. Gray circles are the estimated system V2 at the time of target observations. |
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2.2 Results
Figure 3 shows the final calibrated visibilities for
NGC 4151 as a function of the projected baseline length, enlarged in
the left panel of the insets. We confirm the visibility level
observed by Swain et al. (2003). The covered range of projected baselines
is very limited (note also that the shortest possible for NGC 4151 is
70 m due to the KI's delay line restriction). We see, however,
a marginal decrease of visibility over the increasing baseline. With
the Spearman's rank correlation coefficient analysis, the confidence
level is 98.4%, or 2.4
.
The decrease and absolute level of
visibilities are well fitted with a simple thin ring model (i.e. the
inner radius equals the outer) having a radius of
mas (
pc; the error accounts for the systematic
uncertainty in
;
Sect. 2.1). If we convert each of
the visibility measurements into a ring radius and plot it as a
function of the PA of the projected baseline, we obtain the right
panel of the insets in Fig. 3. Over the PA range
covered, from
10
to
50
,
we do not seem to see a
PA dependence of the radius. For all the other targets, the
calibrated visibilities are shown in Table 1 together with
baseline information and deduced ring radii.
![]() |
Figure 2: Calibrated V2 plotted against observing time. The inset shows the sampled uv points for each target (north to the top, east to the left). |
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![]() |
Figure 3: Calibrated V2 for NGC 4151 as a function of projected baselines, enlarged in the left inset. The dotted line shows the best-fit visibility curve of a ring model with a radius of 0.45 mas. In the right inset, ring radii are plotted along the PA of each projected baseline. Note that the correction for the accretion disk and host galaxy contributions is not incorporated in this figure, and it does not change the ring radius significantly (see Table 2). |
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3 UKIRT imaging and KI data corrections
In order to obtain quasi-simultaneous flux measurements for the
nuclear point-source in the four type 1 AGNs (which are variable),
their images were obtained with WFCAM on UKIRT in five broad-band
filters (Table 2) on 2009 June 17 (UT) under the UKIRT
service programme. The seeing was 1 arcsec. The
pipe-line-reduced data were obtained through the WFCAM Science
Archive. The wide field of view of the WFCAM gave simultaneous
measurements of PSF stars in each AGN field, while a
micro
stepping gave a good image sampling with an effective pixel size of
0.2 arcsec. We implemented two-dimensional (2D) fits for each image to
accurately separate the PSF component from the underlying host galaxy,
following the same procedure as described by Kishimoto et al. (2007).
Table 2 lists the measured flux of the nuclear PSF
component. The uncertainty of our nuclear PSF flux measurements is
estimated as 5%, based on the residual fluxes after the fits
and the flux calibration uncertainty. In the K-band images of the two
brighter objects, namely NGC 4151 and Mrk231, the central several
pixels seemed affected by non-linearity or saturation, so we
implemented the 2D fits by masking the central
0.4 arcsec radius
region. We estimate that the nuclear PSF flux is recovered within the
same uncertainty of 5%, based on the results from the same masked
fits on the other unsaturated images. Using the results of the
PSF-host decomposition, we also estimated the host galaxy flux
fraction within the field-of-view of the KI, which is
50 mas at
K-band (FWHM; set by a single-mode fiber for the fringe tracker). The
results are stated in Table 2. The obtained small values
show that the host galaxy contribution is only a very small part of
the observed visibility departure from unity.
Figure 4 shows the resulting spectral energy distribution
(SED) of the PSF component in each target after the correction for
Galactic reddening. We also corrected for the reddening in the host
galaxy for the objects which show large Balmer decrements in broad
emission lines (Table 2). Assuming that the PSF flux
originates from the hot dust thermal emission nearly at the
sublimation temperature and from the central accretion disk (AD;
thought to be directly seen in type 1 inclinations), we estimate the
flux fraction at K-band from the latter AD component. Here we fit the
SED with a power-law spectrum of the form
for the AD, plus a spectrum of a black-body form for the dust (the
best-fit temperature was
1300-1500 K). The AD flux fraction
at K-band is estimated to be as small as
0.2
(Table 2), which is in agreement with the results by
Kishimoto et al. (2007). This suggests that the high visibilities observed
are not due to the unresolved AD, as opposed to the preferred
interpretation by Swain et al. (2003) for NGC 4151. The assumed near-IR AD
spectral form is based on the recent study of near-IR polarized flux
spectra (Kishimoto et al. 2008), but also on various studies on AD
spectral shapes in the optical/UV (summarized in Fig. 2 of
Kishimoto et al. 2008). By assigning the uncertainty in the AD near-IR
spectral index as 0.3, we also estimated the uncertainty of the K-band
AD flux fraction (Table 2).
Finally, we corrected the observed visibilities for the host galaxy and the AD contributions, where the latter is assumed to remain unresolved by the KI. The corrected V2 as well as corresponding thin ring radii are listed in Table 2.
Table 2: Point-source flux from UKIRT imaging data and the KI results corrected for host galaxy and unresolved AD component.
![]() |
Figure 4: Flux of the nuclear PSF component in WFCAM images derived from 2D fits. Fitted SEDs are shown in dotted lines (see text). |
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4 Interpretations and discussions
![]() |
Figure 5: Corrected ring radius derived for each KI target (squares), plotted against UV luminosity, or a scaled V-band luminosity (extrapolated from the WFCAM Z-band flux; see text). Also shown in gray plus signs are the reverberation radii against the same scaled V-band luminosity (Suganuma et al. 2006, and references therein) and their fit (dotted line). |
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We interpret here the high visibilities observed for all the four objects as an indication of partially resolving the inner brightness distribution of dust thermal emission.
As we discussed in Sect. 3, the AD flux fraction at K-band
is estimated to be small, as long as the assumed power-law AD spectrum
in the near-IR, smoothly continuing from the optical, is at least
roughly correct. In this case, the K-band emission is dominated by
the dust emission, and it is reasonable to convert the observed
visibility to a thin ring radius to obtain an approximate effective
radius of the dust brightness distribution for each object. (We have
corrected V2 for the unresolved AD contribution, but the correction
is quite small; Table 2.) The derived ring radii are
plotted in parsec in Fig. 5 against the UV luminosity L, here defined as a scaled V-band luminosity of
(Kishimoto et al. 2007). The V-band flux is extrapolated from the
fitted flux at 0.8
m (Fig. 4) assuming an AD spectral
shape of
(based on spectral index studies
referred to above).
We can directly compare these ring radii with another type of
independent radius measurements
,
namely the light traveling
distance for the time lag of the K-band flux variation from the
UV/optical variation (Suganuma et al. 2006). These reverberation radii
are also plotted against the same scaled V-band luminosity in
Fig. 5. They are known to be approximately
proportional to L1/2 (Suganuma et al. 2006; the dotted line in
Fig. 5 shows their fit), and are likely to be probing
the dust sublimation radius in each object. We first see that
is roughly comparable to
for all the four objects,
and thus
is roughly scaling also with L1/2. This
approximate match suggests that the KI data are indeed partially
resolving the dust sublimation region.
With a closer look at Fig. 5, we see that
is
either roughly equal to or slightly larger than
(i.e.
,
up to a factor of a few), though we
have only four objects. This could be understood if
is
tracing a radius close to the innermost boundary radius of the dust
distribution. It is known that the cross-correlation lag tends to
trace an inner radius of the responding particles' distribution when
the lag is determined from the peak in the cross-correlation function
(e.g. Koratkar & Gaskell 1991, and references therein), as is the case for
the data used in the fit by Suganuma et al. On the other hand,
is an effective, average radius over the radial dust
brightness distribution in the K-band. When the radial distribution
is very steep and compact, the ratio
would become very
close to unity (such as seen in NGC 4151 and Mrk231), while for a
flatter, more extended distribution,
would show a
larger departure from unity.
If our interpretation above is correct, the KI data would conversely
support the dust sublimation radius as probed by the reverberation
measurements that is smaller by a factor of about three than that
inferred for typical ISM-size Graphite grains (Barvainis 1987, 0.05 m
radius) for a given L (Kishimoto et al. 2007). The small
sublimation radius could be due to the possible dominance of large
grains in the innermost region, since they can sustain at a much
closer distance to the illuminating source for a given sublimation
temperature. Alternatively, it could be due to an anisotropy of the
AD radiation (see Kishimoto et al. 2007, for more details).
In Fig. 5, the reverberation and ring radii are shown
essentially as a function of an instantaneous L at the time of each
corresponding radius measurement. Koshida et al. (2009) have however recently
shown that
is not exactly scaling with the instantaneous L varying in a given object. It could be that
tends to give
a dust sublimation radius that corresponds to a relatively long-term
average of L. On the other hand,
does show the L1/2proportionality over a sample of objects. Thus, when we compare
and
,
unless simultaneous measurements exist, we would
have to allow for the uncertainty in
,
as a function of
instantaneous L, being the scatter in the L1/2 fit (
0.17 dex).
If the AD spectrum does not have a power-law shape but rather has some
red turn-over in the near-IR, though the near-IR polarized flux
spectrum argues against this (Kishimoto et al. 2008), the AD flux fraction
at K-band would become higher than we estimated here. However, even
if the flux fraction is as large as 0.5, the corrected ring radius
would become larger than stated in Table 2 by a factor of
only 1.3, resulting in no qualitative change in our discussion.
Future near-IR interferometry with much longer baselines can
conclusively confirm that the visibility is decreasing as we inferred
from the present KI data. We plan to advance our exploration with
further interferometric measurements in the infrared.
The data presented herein were obtained at the W.M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W.M. Keck Foundation. We are grateful to all the staff members whose huge efforts made these Keck interferometer observations possible. The United Kingdom Infrared Telescope is operated by the Joint Astronomy Centre on behalf of the Science and Technology Facilities Council of the U.K. We thank N. Teamo, J. C. Pelle and K. Levin for kindly providing the pre-imaging data, and F. Millour for helpful discussions. This work has made use of services produced by the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute at the California Institute of Technology.
References
- Barvainis, R. 1987, ApJ, 320, 537 [NASA ADS] [CrossRef]
- Colavita, M. M. 1999, PASP, 111, 111 [CrossRef]
- Colavita, M. M., & Wizinowich, P. L. 2003, in SPIE Conf. Ser. 4838, ed. W. A. Traub, 79
- Kishimoto, M., Hönig, S. F., Beckert, T., & Weigelt, G. 2007, A&A, 476, 713 [NASA ADS] [CrossRef] [EDP Sciences]
- Kishimoto, M., Antonucci, R., Blaes, O., et al. 2008, Nature, 454, 492 [NASA ADS] [CrossRef]
- Koratkar, A. P., & Gaskell, C. M. 1991, ApJS, 75, 719 [NASA ADS] [CrossRef]
- Koshida, S., Yoshii, Y., Kobayashi, Y., et al. 2009, ApJ, 700, L109 [NASA ADS] [CrossRef]
- Lacy, J. H., Malkan, M., Becklin, E. E., et al. 1982, ApJ, 256, 75 [NASA ADS] [CrossRef]
- Schlegel, D. J., Finkbeiner, D. P., & Davis, M. 1998, ApJ, 500, 525 [CrossRef]
- Suganuma, M., Yoshii, Y., Kobayashi, Y., et al. 2006, ApJ, 639, 46 [NASA ADS] [CrossRef]
- Swain, M., Vasisht, G., Akeson, R., et al. 2003, ApJ, 596, L163 [NASA ADS] [CrossRef]
- Wills, B. J., Wills, D., Evans, II, N. J., et al. 1992, ApJ, 400, 96 [NASA ADS] [CrossRef]
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Footnotes
- ...
Kvis
- http://nexsci.caltech.edu/software/KISupport/v2/V2reductionGuide.pdf
- ... wbCalib
- http://nexsci.caltech.edu/software/V2calib/wbCalib/index.html
- ...
flux
- http://nexsci.caltech.edu/software/KISupport/dataMemos/index.shtml
All Tables
Table 1: Properties of our targets and summary of the results of our KI observations on 15 May 2009 (UT).
Table 2: Point-source flux from UKIRT imaging data and the KI results corrected for host galaxy and unresolved AD component.
All Figures
![]() |
Figure 1: Observed V2 plotted against observing time. Gray dots are individual measurements for blocks of 5 s each. Gray circles are the estimated system V2 at the time of target observations. |
Open with DEXTER | |
In the text |
![]() |
Figure 2: Calibrated V2 plotted against observing time. The inset shows the sampled uv points for each target (north to the top, east to the left). |
Open with DEXTER | |
In the text |
![]() |
Figure 3: Calibrated V2 for NGC 4151 as a function of projected baselines, enlarged in the left inset. The dotted line shows the best-fit visibility curve of a ring model with a radius of 0.45 mas. In the right inset, ring radii are plotted along the PA of each projected baseline. Note that the correction for the accretion disk and host galaxy contributions is not incorporated in this figure, and it does not change the ring radius significantly (see Table 2). |
Open with DEXTER | |
In the text |
![]() |
Figure 4: Flux of the nuclear PSF component in WFCAM images derived from 2D fits. Fitted SEDs are shown in dotted lines (see text). |
Open with DEXTER | |
In the text |
![]() |
Figure 5: Corrected ring radius derived for each KI target (squares), plotted against UV luminosity, or a scaled V-band luminosity (extrapolated from the WFCAM Z-band flux; see text). Also shown in gray plus signs are the reverberation radii against the same scaled V-band luminosity (Suganuma et al. 2006, and references therein) and their fit (dotted line). |
Open with DEXTER | |
In the text |
Copyright ESO 2009
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