1. Hydrogen recombination near-infrared line mapping of Centaurus A with IRSF/SIRIUS
- Author
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Kumiko Morihana, Shinki Oyabu, Hidehiro Kaneda, Risako Katayama, Takuro Tsuchikawa, Toyoaki Suzuki, Mitsuyoshi Yamagishi, and Takuma Kokusho
- Subjects
Luminous infrared galaxy ,Physics ,Active galactic nucleus ,010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences ,Star formation ,Astrophysics::High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena ,Centaurus A ,Center (category theory) ,Astronomy and Astrophysics ,Astrophysics ,Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics ,01 natural sciences ,Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies ,Galaxy ,Interstellar medium ,Galactic halo ,Space and Planetary Science ,0103 physical sciences ,Astrophysics::Solar and Stellar Astrophysics ,010303 astronomy & astrophysics ,Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences - Abstract
Centaurus A (Cen A) is one of the most famous galaxies hosting an active galactic nucleus (AGN), where the interaction between AGN activities and surrounding interstellar and intergalactic media has been investigated. Recent studies reported detections of the H{\alpha} emission from clouds in the galactic halo toward the northeast and southwest of the nucleus of Cen A, suggesting that AGN jets may have triggered star formation there. We performed near-infrared line mapping of Cen A with the IRSF 1.4-m telescope, using the narrow-band filter tuned for Pa{\beta}, from which we find that the Pa{\beta} emission is not detected significantly from either northeast or southwest regions. The upper limit of the Pa{\beta}/H{\alpha} ratio in the northeast region is compatible with that expected for a typical HII region, in line with the scenario that AGNs have triggered star formation there. On the other hand, the upper limit of Pa{\beta}/H{\alpha} in the southwest region is significantly lower than that expected for a typical HII region. A possibility to explain the low Pa{\beta}/H{\alpha} ratio in the southwest region is the scattering of H{\alpha} and Pa{\beta} photons from the center of Cen A by dust grains in the halo clouds. From the upper limit of Pa{\beta}/H{\alpha} in the southwest region, we obtain constraints on the dust size distribution, which is found to be compatible with those seen in the interstellar medium of our Galaxy., Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in PASJ, typos corrected
- Published
- 2020