Lunch talk on Mar. 28, 2022

NOEMA Detection of Circumnuclear Molecular Gas in X-ray-selected Dual Active Galactic Nuclei

Speaker: Meicun Hou (Peking University)

Venue: Video Conference

Time: 12:30 PM, Monday, Mar. 28, 2022

Abstract: 

Dual active galactic nucleus (AGN), which is the manifestation of simultaneous accretion onto the individual supermassive black holes in a merging galaxy pair, is an ideal laboratory to study the causal link between galaxy merger and the triggering of nuclear activity. Our recent X-ray survey of optically selected AGN pairs have revealed a deficiency of hard X-ray luminosities among close separated pairs, which may be caused by enhanced absorbing columns from merger-induced gas inflows and/or feedback effects from early-stage mergers. Our new NOEMA CO(2-1) observations of 7 dual-AGNs with rp < 4.5 kpc show clear detections of circumnuclear molecular gas in six systems. Some nuclei with high column density (~10^{23} cm^{-2}) favor the scenario of obscuration by the merger-induced gas inflows. While other low-luminosity AGNs with lower column density are more likely due to the negative feedback effects which suppresses further black hole accretion.

Report PPT:  SWIFAR_Meicun Hou.pdf