Investigating the Evolution of the Dual AGN System ESO 509-IG066

Creators: Kosec, P.; Brightman, M.; Stern, D.; Müller-Sánchez, F.; Koss, M.; Oh, K.; Assef, R. J.; Gandhi, P.; Harrison, F. A.; Jun, H.; Masini, A.; Ricci, C.; Walton, D. J.; Treister, E.; Comerford, J.; Privon, G.

Abstract

We analyze the evolution of the dual active galactic nucleus (AGN) in ESO 509-IG066, a galaxy pair located at z = 0.034 whose nuclei are separated by 11 kpc. Previous observations with XMM-Newton on this dual AGN found evidence for two moderately obscured (N_H ~ 10² cm⁻²) X-ray luminous (L_X ~ 10⁴³ erg s⁻¹) nuclear sources. We present an analysis of subsequent Chandra, NuSTAR, and Swift/XRT observations that show one source has dropped in flux by a factor of 10 between 2004 and 2011, which could be explained by either an increase in the absorbing column or an intrinsic fading of the central engine, possibly due to a decrease in mass accretion. Both of these scenarios are predicted by galaxy merger simulations. The source that has dropped in flux is not detected by NuSTAR, which argues against absorption, unless it is extreme. However, new Keck/LRIS optical spectroscopy reveals a previously unreported broad Hα line that is highly unlikely to be visible under the extreme absorption scenario. We therefore conclude that the black hole in this nucleus has undergone a dramatic drop in its accretion rate. From AO-assisted near-infrared integral-field spectroscopy of the other nucleus, we find evidence that the galaxy merger is having a direct effect on the kinematics of the gas close to the nucleus of the galaxy, providing a direct observational link between the galaxy merger and the mass accretion rate onto the black hole.

Additional Information

© 2017 The American Astronomical Society. Received 2017 January 9; revised 2017 September 13; accepted 2017 October 5; published 2017 November 28. We thank the referee for their constructive input on our manuscript. We also thank Mislav Baloković for introducing us to these interesting galaxies and Jared Gabor for useful discussion. R.J.A. was supported by FONDECYT grant number 1151408. A.M. acknowledges support from the ASI/INAF grant I/037/12/0-011/13. C.R. acknowledges financial support from the CONICYT-Chile grants "EMBIGGEN" Anillo ACT1101, FONDECYT 1141218, Basal-CATA PFB–06/2007 and from the China-CONICYT fund. This work was supported under NASA Contract No. NNG08FD60C, and made use of data from the NuSTAR mission, a project led by the California Institute of Technology, managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. We thank the NuSTAR Operations, Software, and Calibration teams for support with the execution and analysis of these observations. This research has made use of the NuSTAR Data Analysis Software (NuSTARDAS) jointly developed by the ASI Science Data Center (ASDC, Italy) and the California Institute of Technology (USA). The work presented here was also based on observations obtained with XMM-Newton, an ESA science mission with instruments and contributions directly funded by ESA Member States and NASA. This publication makes use of data products from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, which is a joint project of the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The data presented herein were obtained at the W.M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W.M. Keck Foundation. The authors wish to recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that the summit of Maunakea has always had within the indigenous Hawaiian community. We are most fortunate to have the opportunity to conduct observations from this mountain. This research has also made use of data and software provided by the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC), which is a service of the Astrophysics Science Division at NASA/GSFC and the High Energy Astrophysics Division of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Furthermore, this research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED), which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. A.M. acknowledges support from the ASI/INAF grant I/037/12/0-011/13, and C.R. acknowledges financial support from the CONICYT-Chile grants "EMBIGGEN" Anillo ACT1101, FONDECYT 1141218, Basal-CATA PFB–06/2007, and from the China-CONICYT fund. Facilities: NuSTAR - The NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array) mission, XMM-Newton (pn) - , Chandra - , Swift (XRT), WISE - , Keck (LRIS) - , Keck (OSIRIS) - .

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