Shock Excitation in Narrow-line Regions Powered by AGN Outflows

Abstract

Outflows in an active galactic nucleus (AGN) are considered to play a key role in the evolution of the host galaxy through transfer of a large amount of energy. A narrow-line region (NLR) in the AGN is composed of ionized gas extending from parsec to kiloparsec scales. It has been suggested that shocks are required to ionize the NLR gas. If AGN outflows generate these shocks, they will sweep through the NLR, and the outflow energy will be transferred into a galaxy-scale region. In order to study the contribution of the AGN outflow to the NLR-scale shock, we measure the [Fe ii ] λ 12570/[P ii ] λ 11886 line ratio, which is a good tracer of shocks, using near-infrared spectroscopic observations with the Warm INfrared Echelle spectrograph to Realize Extreme Dispersion and sensitivity (WINERED) mounted on the New Technology Telescope. In 13 Seyfert galaxies we observed, the [Fe ii ] and [P ii ] lines were detected in 12 and 6 targets, respectively. The [Fe ii ]/[P ii ] ratios in 4 targets were found to be higher than 10, which implies the existence of shocks. We also found that the shock is likely to exist where an ionized outflow, i.e., a blue wing in [S iii ] λ 9533, is present. Our result implies that the ionized outflow present in an NLR-scale region sweeps through the interstellar medium and generates a shock.

Keywords

• Active galaxies