Bibcode
Rodríguez-Ardila, Alberto; Prieto, Almudena; Viegas, Sueli M.
Bibliographical reference
The Interplay among Black Holes, Stars and ISM in Galactic Nuclei, Proceedings of IAU Symposium, No. 222. Edited by T. Storchi-Bergmann, L.C. Ho, and Henrique R. Schmitt. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004., p.283-286
Advertised on:
11
2004
Citations
4
Refereed citations
4
Description
VLT and NTT spectra are used to examine the nuclear and extended coronal
line emission in a sample of well-known Seyfert 1 and 2 galaxies. The
excellent spatial resolution obtained with VLT allowed us to map [Si VI]
1.963μm and [Si VII] 2.48μm on scales of up to 20 pc. Coronal line
emission, extended to distances of ˜102 pc, is detected in some of
the lines analyzed, particularly in [Fe X] 6374Å, [Fe XI]
7891Å, and [Si VII] 2.48μm. Most coronal lines are strongly
asymmetric towards the blue and broader than low-ionization lines. This
result is particularly important for Circinus, where previous
observations have failed to detect larger widths for high-ionization
lines. Photoionization models are used to investigate the physical
conditions and continuum luminosities necessary to produced the observed
coronal emission. We found that an ionization parameter U>0.10 is
necessary to reproduce the observations, although the clouds should be
located at a distance <30 pc from the central engine.