Soft X-ray spectroscopy of Compton-thick Seyfert 2 galaxies with BeppoSAX

We present an X-ray spectroscopic study of the bright Compton-thick Seyfert 2 galaxies NGC 1068 and the Circinus Galaxy, performed with BeppoSAX . Matt et al. interpreted the spectrum above 4 keV as the superposition of Compton reflection and warm plasma scattering of the nuclear radiation. When this continuum is extrapolated downwards to 0.1 keV, further components arise. The NGC 1068 spectrum is rich in emission lines, mainly owing to K _α transitions of He-like elements from oxygen to iron, plus a K _α fluorescent line from neutral iron. If the ionized lines originate in the warm scatterer, its thermal and ionization structure must be complex. From the continuum and line properties, we estimate a column density, N _warm, of the warm scatterer less than a few×10²¹ cm⁻². In the Circinus Galaxy, the absence of highly ionized iron is consistent with a scattering medium with U _X≲5 and N _warm∼ a few×10²² cm⁻². In both cases the neutral iron line is most naturally explained as fluorescence in the medium responsible for the Compton reflection continuum. In NGC 1068 an optically thin plasma emission with kT ≃500 eV and strongly sub-solar metallicity is required, while such a component is only marginal in the Circinus Galaxy. We tentatively identify this component as emission of diffuse hot gas in the nuclear starbursts. Possible causes for the metal depletion are discussed.     

[Ti ii] and [Ni ii] emission from the strontium filament of η Carinae

We study the nature of the [Ti  ii ] and [Ni  ii ] emission from the so-called strontium filament found in the ejecta of η Carinae. To this purpose, we employ multilevel models of the Ti  ii and Ni  ii systems, which are used to investigate the physical condition of the filament and the excitation mechanisms of the observed lines. For the Ti  ii ion, for which no atomic data were previously available, we carry out ab initio calculations of radiative transition rates and electron impact excitation rate coefficients. It is found that the observed spectrum is consistent with the lines being excited in a mostly neutral region with an electron density of the order of 10⁷ cm⁻³ and a temperature around 6000 K. In analysing three observations with different slit orientations recorded between 2000 March and 2001 November, we find line ratios that change among various observations, in a way consistent with changes of up to an order of magnitude in the strength of the continuum radiation field. These changes result from different samplings of the extended filament due to the different slit orientations used for each observation, and yield clues on the spatial extent and optical depth of the filament. The observed emission indicates a large Ti/Ni abundance ratio relative to solar abundances. It is suggested that the observed high Ti/Ni ratio in gas is caused by dust–gas fractionation processes and does not reflect the absolute Ti/Ni ratio in the ejecta of η Carinae. We study the condensation chemistry of Ti, Ni and Fe within the filament and suggest that the observed gas phase overabundance of Ti is likely the result of selective photoevaporation of Ti-bearing grains. Some mechanisms for such a scenario are proposed.     

The Kα complex of He-like iron with dielectronic satellites

It is shown that the dielectronic satellites (DES) dominate X-ray spectral formation in the 6.7-keV K α complex of Fe  xxv at temperatures below that of maximum abundance in collisional ionization equilibrium T _m. Owing to their extreme temperature sensitivity, the DES are excellent spectral diagnostics for     in photoionized, collisional or hybrid plasmas; whereas the forbidden, intercombination and resonance lines of Fe  xxv are not. A diagnostic line ratio GD ( T ) is defined including the DES and the lines, with parameters from new relativistic atomic calculations. The DES absorption resonance strengths may be obtained from differential oscillator strengths, possibly to yield the     column densities. The DES contribution to highly ionized Fe should be of interest for models of redward broadening of K α features, ionized accretion discs, accretion flows and K α temporal-temperature variability in AGN.     

A high-resolution radio study of neutral gas in the starburst galaxy NGC 520

We present subarcsec angular resolution observations of the neutral gas in the nearby starburst galaxy NGC 520. The central kpc region of NGC 520 contains an area of significantly enhanced star formation. The radio continuum structure of this region resolves into ∼10 continuum components. By comparing the flux densities of the brightest of these components at 1.4 GHz with published 15-GHz data we infer that these components detected at 1.4 and 1.6 GHz are related to the starburst and are most likely to be collections of several supernova remnants within the beam. None of these components is consistent with emission from an active galactic nuclei. Both neutral hydrogen (H  i ) and hydroxyl (OH) absorption lines are observed against the continuum emission, along with a weak OH maser feature probably related to the star formation activity in this galaxy. Strong H  i absorption  ( N _H∼ 10²² atoms cm⁻²)  traces a velocity gradient of 0.5 km s⁻¹ pc⁻¹ across the central kpc of NGC 520. The H  i absorption velocity structure is consistent with the velocity gradients observed in both the OH absorption and in CO emission observations. The neutral gas velocity structure observed within the central kpc of NGC 520 is attributed to a kpc-scale ring or disc. It is also noted that the velocity gradients observed for these neutral gas components appear to differ with the velocity gradients observed from optical ionized emission lines. This apparent disagreement is discussed and attributed to the extinction of the optical emission from the actual centre of this source hence implying that optical ionized emission lines are only detected from regions with significantly different radii to those sampled by the observations presented here.     

The CaT strength in Seyfert nuclei revisited: analysing young stars and non-stellar light contributions to the spectra

In a former paper, we have presented spectra of 64 active, nine normal and five starburst galaxies in the region around the near-infrared calcium triplet (CaT) absorption lines and the [S  iii ]λ9069 line. In the present paper, we analyse the CaT strength ( W _CaT) and kinematical products derived in that study, namely stellar  (σ_★)  and ionized gas (σ_gas) velocity dispersions. Our main results may be summarized as follows. (1) Type 2 Seyfert galaxies show no sign of dilution in W _CaT with respect to the values spanned by normal galaxies, even when optical absorption lines such as the Ca  ii K band at 3933 Å are much weaker than in old, bulge-like stellar populations. (2) The location of type 2 Seyfert galaxies in the   W _CaT– W _CaK  plane is consistent with evolutionary synthesis models. The implication is that the source responsible for the dilution of optical lines in these active galactic nuclei (AGN) is a young stellar population, rather than an AGN featureless continuum, confirming the conclusion of the pioneer study of Terlevich, Díaz & Terlevich. (3) In type 1 Seyfert galaxies, both   W _{[S  iii ]}  and W _CaT tend to be diluted due to the presence of a non-stellar component, in agreement with the unification paradigm. (4) A comparison of  σ_★  with σ_gas (obtained from the core of the [S  iii ] emitting line) confirms the existence of a correlation between the typical velocities of stars and clouds of the narrow line region. The strength and scatter around this correlation are similar to those previously obtained from the [O  iii ]λ5007 linewidth.     

Predictions of the extent of self-enrichment in oxygen of giant metal-poor H ii regions

In general, H  ii regions do not show clear signs of self-enrichment in products from massive stars  ( M ≥ 8 M_⊙)  . In order to explore why I modelled the contamination with Wolf–Rayet star ejecta of metal-poor  ( Z = 0.001)  H  ii regions, ionized either by a  10⁶ M_⊙  cluster of coeval stars (cluster 1) or by a cluster resulting from continuous star formation at a rate of  1 M_⊙ yr⁻¹  (cluster 2). The clusters have   Z = 0.001  and a Salpeter initial mass function from 0.1 to  120 M_⊙  . Independent one-dimensional constant density simulations of the emission-line spectra of unenriched H  ii regions were computed at the discrete ages 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 Myr, with the photoionization code cloudy , using as input, radiative and mechanical stellar feedbacks predicted by the evolutionary synthesis code starburst99 . Each H  ii region was placed at the outer radius of the adiabatically expanding superbubble of Mac Low & McCray. For models with thermal and ionization balance time-scales of less than 1 Myr, and with oxygen emission-line ratios in agreement with observations, the volume of the superbubble and the H  ii region was uniformly and instantaneously polluted with stellar ejecta predicted by starburst99 . I obtained a maximum oxygen abundance enhancement of 0.025 dex, with cluster 1, at 4 Myr. It would be unobservable.     

Precision abundance analysis of bright H ii galaxies

We present high signal-to-noise ratio spectrophotometric observations of seven luminous H  ii galaxies. The observations have been made with the use of a double-arm spectrograph which provides spectra with a wide wavelength coverage, from 3400 to 10 400 Å free of second-order effects, of exactly the same region as that of a given galaxy. These observations are analysed applying a methodology designed to obtain accurate elemental abundances of oxygen, sulphur, nitrogen, neon, argon and iron in the ionized gas. Four electron temperatures and one electron density are derived from the observed forbidden line ratios using the five-level atom approximation. For our best objects, errors of 1 per cent in t _e([O  iii ]), 3 per cent in t _e([O  ii ]) and 5 per cent in t _e([S  iii ]) are achieved with a resulting accuracy of 7 per cent in total oxygen abundances, O/H.
The ionization structure of the nebulae can be mapped by the theoretical oxygen and sulphur ionic ratios, on the one side, and the corresponding observed emission line ratios, on the other – the η and η' plots. The combination of both is shown to provide a means to test photoionization model sequences presently applied to derive elemental abundances in H  ii galaxies.     

An astrophysical oscillator strength for the S ii 94.7-nm resonance line and S abundances in DLAs

By using UV spectra for the O star HD 93521 taken with the ORFEUS II echelle spectrograph, we determine an 'astrophysical' f value for the S  ii   λ 94.7-nm line: f =0.00498_−0.00138^+0.00172 , error at 1 σ level. This is almost a factor of 30 smaller than the guessed value found in the Kurucz data base (  f =0.1472) , which was until now the only one available for this transition. We use our 'astrophysical' f to investigate the S abundance in two damped Ly α absorption systems (DLAs) observed with the UV–Visual Echelle Spectrograph (UVES) at the European Southern Observatory's 8.2-m Kueyen telescope. In the case of the absorber at z _abs=3.02486 towards QSO 0347-3819, we find a sulphur column density which is consistent, within errors, with that determined by Centurión et al. by means of the λ 125.9-nm line, thus providing an external check on the accuracy of our f value. For the damped absorber at z _abs=4.4680 towards BR J0307-4945, we determine a high value of the S abundance, which, however, is probably the result of blending with Ly α forest lines.     

The response of the Fe Kα line to changes in the X-ray illumination of accretion discs

X-ray reflection spectra from photoionized accretion discs in active galaxies are presented for a wide range of illumination conditions. The energy, equivalent width (EW) and flux of the Fe K α line are shown to depend strongly on the ratio of illuminating flux to disc flux,   F _x/ F _disc  , the photon index of the irradiating power law, Γ, and the incidence angle of the radiation, i . When   F _x/ F _disc≤2  a neutral Fe K α line is prominent for all but the largest values of Γ. At higher illuminating fluxes an He-like Fe K α line at 6.7 keV dominates the line complex. With a high-energy cut-off of 100 keV, the thermal ionization instability seems to suppress the ionized Fe K α line when  Γ≤1.6  . The Fe K α line flux correlates with   F _x/ F _disc  , but the dependence weakens as iron becomes fully ionized. The EW is roughly constant when   F _x/ F _disc  is low and a neutral line dominates, but then declines as the line progresses through higher ionization stages. There is a strong positive correlation between the Fe K α EW and Γ when the line energy is at 6.7 keV, and a slight negative one when it is at 6.4 keV. This is a potential observational diagnostic of the ionization state of the disc. Observations of the broad Fe K α line, which take into account any narrow component, would be able to test these predictions. Ionized Fe K α lines at 6.7 keV are predicted to be common in a simple magnetic flare geometry. A model that includes multiple ionization gradients on the disc is postulated to reconcile the results with observations.     

The broadening of d–f and f–d transitions by collisions with neutral hydrogen atoms

The theory of Anstee & O'Mara for the broadening of spectral lines owing to collisions by neutral hydrogen atoms is extended to d–f and f–d transitions of neutral atoms. Width cross-sections are tabulated against effective principal quantum numbers for the upper and lower states of the transition, for a relative collision velocity of 10⁴ m s⁻¹. The cross-sections are fitted to a variation with velocity of v ^−α, and results for the velocity parameter α are similarly tabulated. The data are tested by application to d–f spectral lines in the solar spectrum. The derived abundances are consistent with those for meteorites.     

A comprehensive study of reported high-metallicity giant H ii regions – I. Detailed abundance analysis

We present long-slit observations in the optical and near-infrared of 14 H  ii regions in the spiral galaxies NGC 628, 925, 1232 and 1637, all of them reported to have solar or oversolar abundances according to empirical calibrations. For seven of the observed regions, ion-weighted temperatures from optical forbidden auroral to nebular line ratios are obtained and, for six of them, the oxygen abundances derived by standard methods turn out to be significantly lower than solar. The other one, named CDT1 in NGC 1232, shows an oxygen abundance of     , and constitutes, to the best of our knowledge, the first high-metallicity H  ii region for which accurate line temperatures, and hence elemental abundances, have been derived.
For the rest of the regions no line temperature measurements could be made, and the metallicity has been determined by means of both detailed photoionization modelling and the sulphur abundance parameter S ₂₃. Only one of these regions shows values of O ₂₃ and S ₂₃ implying a solar or oversolar metallicity.
According to our analysis, only two of the observed regions can therefore be considered as of high metallicity. These two fit the trends previously found in other high-metallicity H  ii regions, i.e., N/O and S/O abundance ratios seem to be higher and lower than solar respectively.     

On the H i content, dust-to-gas ratio and nature of Mg ii absorbers

We estimate the mean dust-to-gas ratio of Mg  ii absorbers as a function of rest equivalent width W ₀ and redshift over the range  0.5 < z < 1.4  . Using the expanded Sloan Digital Sky Survey/ Hubble Space Telescope sample of low-redshift Lyman-α absorbers, we first show the existence of a 8σ correlation between the mean hydrogen column density  〈 N _{H  i} 〉  and W ₀, an indicator of gas velocity dispersion. By combining these results with recent dust-reddening measurements, we show that the mean dust-to-gas ratio of Mg  ii absorbers does not appreciably depend on rest equivalent width. Assuming that, on average, dust-to-gas ratio is proportional to metallicity, we find its redshift evolution to be consistent with that of   L ^★  galaxies from   z = 0.5  to 1.4, and we show that our constraints disfavour dwarf galaxies as the origin of such absorbers. We discuss other scenarios and favour galactic outflows from  ∼ L ^★  galaxies as the origin of the majority of strong Mg  ii absorbers. Finally, we show that, once evolutionary effects are taken into account, the Bohlin et al. relation between A _V and N _H is also satisfied by strong Mg  ii systems down to lower column densities than those probed in our Galaxy.     

A search for Ca ii emission enhancement in stars resulting from nearby giant planets

We present a search for periodicities ( P _chr) in the chromospheric Ca  ii infrared triplet emission of several stars ( τ Boo, 51 Peg, υ And, ρ ¹ Cnc, ρ CrB, 70 Vir and GL 876) which may be directly attributable to interaction with close-in giant planets. Activity enhancements could arise from increased non-radiative heating and dynamo action in planet-induced tidal bulges (with P _chr≈ P _orb/2), or from interactions between the stellar and planetary magnetic fields (with P _chr≈ P _orb). We compare both P _chr and the phase dependence of the activity with the planetary orbital period P _orb, the orbital phase, and models. No significant P _chr or phase dependence attributable to planets can be clearly identified. We place approximate upper limits on the amplitude of any planet-induced activity. We identify a possible stellar rotation period for GL 876, and support previous period determinations for four other stars. We discuss the results and possible directions of future research.     

On the carriers of the 21 μm emission feature in post-asymptotic giant branch stars

The mysterious 21 μm emission feature seen in sixteen C-rich proto-planetary nebulae (PPNe) remains unidentified since its discovery in 1989. Over a dozen of materials are suggested as the carrier candidates. In this work, we quantitatively investigate eight inorganic and one organic carrier candidates in terms of elemental abundance constraints, while previous studies mostly focus on their spectral profiles (which could be largely affected by grain size, shape and clustering effects). It is found that: (1) five candidates (TiC nanoclusters, fullerenes coordinated with Ti atoms, SiS₂, doped-SiC and SiO₂-coated SiC dust) violate the abundance constraints (i.e. they require too much Ti, S or Si to account for the emission power of the 21 μm band, (2) three candidates (carbon and silicon mixtures, Fe₂O₃ and Fe₃O₄), while satisfying the abundance constraints, exhibit secondary features which are not detected in the 21 μm sources and (3) nano FeO, neither exceeding the abundance budget nor producing undetected secondary features, seems to be a viable candidate, supporting the suggestions of Posch, Mutschke & Andersen.     

Deep echelle spectrophotometry of S 311, a Galactic H ii region located outside the solar circle

We present echelle spectrophotometry of the Galactic H  ii region S 311. The data have been taken with the Very Large Telescope Ultraviolet-Visual Echelle Spectrograph in the 3100–10 400 Å range. We have measured the intensities of 263 emission lines; 178 are permitted lines of H⁰, D⁰ (deuterium), He⁰, C⁰, C⁺, N⁰, N⁺, O⁰, O⁺, S⁺, Si⁰, Si⁺, Ar⁰ and Fe⁰; some of them are produced by recombination and others mainly by fluorescence. Physical conditions have been derived using different continuum- and line-intensity ratios. We have derived He⁺, C⁺⁺ and O⁺⁺ ionic abundances from pure recombination lines as well as abundances from collisionally excited lines for a large number of ions of different elements. We have obtained consistent estimations of t ² applying different methods. We have found that the temperature fluctuations paradigm is consistent with the T _e(He  i ) versus T _e(H  i ) relation for H  ii regions, in contrast with what has been found for planetary nebulae. We report the detection of deuterium Balmer lines up to Dδ in the blue wings of the hydrogen lines, whose excitation mechanism seems to be continuum fluorescence.     

HST/STIS observations of the high-velocity interstellar cloud HVC 291.2−41.2+80: a warm, mainly ionized high-velocity cloud

We present intermediate-resolution HST /STIS spectra of a high-velocity interstellar cloud ( v _LSR=+80 km s⁻¹) towards DI 1388, a young star in the Magellanic Bridge located between the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds. The STIS data have a signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of 20–45 and a spectral resolution of about 6.5 km s⁻¹ (FWHM). The high-velocity cloud absorption is observed in the lines of C  ii , O  i , Si  ii , Si  iii , Si  iv and S  iii . Limits can be placed on the amount of S  ii and Fe  ii absorption that is present. An analysis of the relative abundances derived from the observed species, particularly C  ii and O  i , suggests that this high-velocity gas is warm ( T _k∼10³–10⁴ K) and predominantly ionized. This hypothesis is supported by the presence of absorption produced by highly ionized species, such as Si  iv . This sightline also intercepts two other high-velocity clouds that produce weak absorption features at v _LSR=+113 and +130 km s⁻¹ in the STIS spectra.     

Excitation of Sr ii lines in Eta Carinae

We study the nature of the peculiar [Sr  ii ] and Sr  ii emission filament found in the ejecta of Eta Carinae. To this purpose we carry out ab initio calculations of radiative transition probabilities and electron impact excitation rate coefficients for Sr  ii . Then we build a multilevel model for the system which is used to investigate the physical condition of the filament and the nature of the observed allowed and forbidden Sr  ii optical emission. It is found that the observed spectrum is consistent with the lines being pumped by the continuum radiation field in a mostly neutral region with electron density near 10⁷ cm⁻³. Under these conditions, the observed emission can be explained without the need for a large Sr overabundance.     

X-ray absorption in the strong Fe ii narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy Markarian 507

We present results from spectral analysis of ASCA data on the strong Fe  ii narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy Mrk 507. This galaxy was found to have an exceptionally flat ROSAT spectrum among the narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies (NLS1s) studied by Boller, Brandt & Fink. The ASCA spectrum, however, shows a clear absorption feature in the energy band below 2 keV, which partly accounts for the flat spectrum observed with the ROSAT Position Sensitive Proportional Counter (PSPC). Such absorption is rarely observed in other NLS1s. The absorption is mainly the result of cold (neutral or slightly ionized) gas with a column density of (2–3) × 10²¹ cm⁻². A reanalysis of the PSPC data shows that an extrapolation of the best-fitting model for the ASCA spectrum underpredicts the X-ray emission observed with the PSPC below 0.4 keV if the absorber is neutral (which indicates that the absorber is slightly ionized), covers only part of the central source, or there is extra soft thermal emission from an extended region. There is also evidence that the X-ray absorption is complex; an additional edge feature marginally detected at 0.84 keV suggests the presence of an additional high-ionization absorber, which imposes a strong O  viii edge on the spectrum. After correction for the absorption, the photon index of the intrinsic continuum, Γ ≃ 1.8, obtained from the ASCA data is quite similar to that of ordinary Seyfert 1 galaxies. Mrk 507 still has one of the flattest continuum slopes among the NLS1s, but is no longer exceptional. The strong optical Fe  ii emission remains unusual in the light of the correlation between Fe  ii strengths and steepness of soft X-ray slope.     

IRAS 12311−3509: a carbon star with SiC2 emission

The optical spectrum of the carbon star IRAS 12311−3509 is dominated by the Merrill–Sanford emission bands of SiC₂, by absorption and emission in the Swan system of C₂, and by resonance emission lines of neutral metals. The infrared energy distribution is flat from 1 to 60 μm. These observations are interpreted as arising from a star with a cool dusty disc which is edge-on to the observer and obscures direct starlight. The infrared continuum is caused predominantly by absorption of stellar light by dust in the disc and re-emission at longer wavelengths. The optical stellar spectrum is seen by reflection off dusty material which lies out of the plane of the disc, and the molecular and atomic emission arises in the same geometry through resonance fluorescence. The object has similarities to the J-silicate stars, but may have a carbon-rich rather than oxygen-rich disc. A full spectroscopic assignment and discussion of the SiC₂ bands and their intensities are given. Modelling of the rotational contours of the     band yields a rotational temperature of 250 K, indicating very cool gas.     

Measurements of hyperfine structure in Ta ii

We report the first extensive measurements of hyperfine structure in Ta  ii . Spectra of Ta  ii were recorded by high-resolution Fourier transform spectrometry in the region  10 000–53 000 cm^-1   (1886–10 000 Å)  and the majority of observed lines show significant hyperfine structure. Computer fits to several hundred of these line profiles have yielded values of the magnetic dipole hyperfine interaction constant A for 88 energy levels with an uncertainty of between 0.5 and 10 per cent for the majority of A factors. The A factors range from −0.078 to +0.065 cm⁻¹ for the even levels and from −0.064 to +0.083 cm⁻¹ for the odd levels. For the majority of these A factors no previous measurements are known. Approximate values of the electric quadrupole hyperfine interaction constant B were found for 73 levels. These measurements of A and B factors allow, for the first time, the effects of hyperfine structure in Ta  ii lines to be correctly accounted for both in abundance analysis and in the resolution of blended lines in astrophysical spectra.