The nuclear activity of late-type galaxies in the Virgo Cluster Roberto Decarli Università degli Studi di Milano – Bicocca Dipartimento di Fisica Santiago, September, 6 th , 2007 Università degli Studi dell’Insubria Dipartimento di Fisica e Matematica G. Gavazzi M. Colpi I. Arosio C. Bonfanti L. Cortese A. Boselli
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The nuclear activity of late-type galaxies in the Virgo Cluster
Roberto Decarli. Università degli Studi di Milano – Bicocca Dipartimento di Fisica. The nuclear activity of late-type galaxies in the Virgo Cluster. Università degli Studi dell’Insubria Dipartimento di Fisica e Matematica. G. Gavazzi M. Colpi I. Arosio C. Bonfanti L. Cortese A. Boselli. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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The nuclear activity of late-type galaxies in the Virgo Cluster
Roberto Decarli
Università degli Studi di Milano – BicoccaDipartimento di Fisica
Santiago, September, 6th, 2007
Università degli Studi dell’InsubriaDipartimento di Fisica e Matematica
G. GavazziM. ColpiI. Arosio C. BonfantiL. CorteseA. Boselli
The sample• The Virgo Cluster:
– is near us– is rich– is widely studied
• We select all spiral galaxies in the Virgo Cluster Catalogue (Binggeli et al., 1985, 1993) with mph ≤15.
• Among the complete sample of 237galaxies: • 213 (90%) have a
• Mdyn = dynamical mass up to the optical radius of the galaxy
• Direct measures of Mdyn areobservational time consuming
• For spiral galaxies:
(Gavazzi et al., 1996)
• We use H luminosity as a surrogate of Mdyn. NIR datawere taken from 2MASS and from GOLDMine databases
L6.4
MHLM dyn
Adapted from Gavazzi et al. (1996)
Mass distribution• Only VCC 213 has Mdyn<1010 Mo and hosts
an AGN
• AGN fraction changes from 0% up to 100% when Mdyn changes between ∽1010 Mo and ∽3·1011 Mo
(see also Kauffmann et al., 2003)
• Mdyn > 1010 Mo is a necessary condition for harbouring an AGN
• Mdyn > 3·1011 Mo is also a sufficient condition
The colour-magnitude diagram
AGNs populate the high-mass end of the
same colour-magnitude relation as the one observed for
inactive galaxies!
• The AGN host galaxies are usually found to be redder than non-active galaxies.
• Some authors (e.g., Obric et al., 2006) suggested that the AGN feedback may be responsible of this effect.
- Bulge dominated galaxies have C31>4
- Pure disks have C31∽2.5
- When Mdyn> 1011 Mo, both bulge- and disk-dominated spiral galaxies are found (see Gavazzi Pierini & Boselli, 1996; Scodeggio et al., 2002)
The role of bulges
• From NIR light profile we define:
AGNs are found in all the galaxies having prominent bulges,
but even in bulgeless galaxies!
%25
%7531 r
rC
Bulge-dominated
spiral galaxies
Disk-dominated spiral galaxies
M100
NGC4535
M61
Light cusps
- Sensitive to unresolved nuclei and light cusps
- Nuc increases continuously with Mdyn
),()5.1( %50%25 rrrNuc seeing
AGNs are found mainly at highvalues of Nuc
Are r-band nuclei the due to AGN continuum?
• Nuclear spectra of 4 AGNs in our sample were observed with HST (Spinelli et al., 2006). All of them are well fitted with Bruzual & Charlot libraries of star spectra.
• AGN continuum light is thus negligible with respect to the stellar component.
VCC 1110 - Seyfert VCC 2070 - LINER
VCC 1690 - LINER
VCC 1401 - Seyfert
Environment – I• We divide our sample in two parts, according to
the angular separation of the galaxies from M87:– High density subsample:
114 galaxies, 37 AGNs (32±8 %)– “Low” density subsample:
99 galaxies, 40 AGNs (40±10 %)
• The mass distribution of the subsamples are similar.
• The observed AGN fractions are consistent.
Environment – II
• We check the [NII]/H dependence on the neutral gas deficiency (Haynes & Giovanelli, 1984).
• Even considering the HI deficiency no clear environmental effect is observed, once the luminosity dependence is taken into account.
The environment does not significantly influence the
nuclear activity
What can we argue about the BH-host galaxy joint evolution?
• At least in spiral galaxies, the nuclear activity is strongly sensitive to the host galaxy mass, while the morphology plays a secondary role.
• The environment is not relevant in nuclear activity.• There is no evidence of a strong feedback mechanism in the
galaxy colours.• Low accretion rates are observed.
• The massive BH may have grown simultaneously with the galaxy, in an anti-hierarchical way:
• The dynamical mass is the driver of both the galaxy and the BH growth, in a top-down scenario
• The scale relations inset during the formation itself of the system
• Galaxies do not require any strong feedback later on, neither strong accretion rates
• The “fragile” morphology of pure disk and bulgeless galaxies is preserved, since the BH is already formed
• Balmer lines are usually observed both in emission and in absorption
• When possible, both the emission and absorption features are fitted. Otherwise, a correction is applied assuming various templates according to the galaxy luminosity.