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Published March 2006 | Submitted + Published
Journal Article Open

Subarcsecond Mid-Infrared Observations of NGC 6240: Limitations of Active Galactic Nucleus-Starburst Power Diagnostics

Abstract

In order to examine the relative importance of powerful starbursts and Compton-thick active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in NGC 6240, we have obtained mid-infrared images and low-resolution spectra of the galaxy with subarcsecond spatial resolution using the Keck telescopes. Despite the high spatial resolution (~200 pc) of our data, no signature of the hidden AGNs has been detected in the mid-infrared. The southern nucleus, which we show provides 80%–90% of the total 8–25 µm luminosity of the system, has a mid-infrared spectrum and a mid-/far-infrared spectral energy distribution consistent with starbursts. At the same time, however, it is also possible to attribute up to 60% of the bolometric luminosity to an AGN, consistent with X-ray observations, if the AGN is heavily obscured and emits mostly in the far-infrared. This ambiguity arises because the intrinsic variation of properties among a given galaxy population (e.g., starbursts) introduces at least a factor of a few uncertainty even into the most robust AGN-starburst diagnostics. We conclude that with present observations it is not possible to determine the dominant power source in galaxies when AGN and starburst luminosities are within a factor of a few of each other.

Additional Information

© 2006 The American Astronomical Society. Received 2005 June 23; accepted 2005 November 3. We thank E. Sturm, A. S. Evans, and H. W. W. Spoon for providing us the ISO SWS spectra, the HST NICMOS images, and the ISOCAM CVF spectrum, respectively. We would also like to thank the anonymous referee for very helpful comments. The authors wish to recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that the summit of Mauna Kea 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 made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

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Published - Egami_2006_AJ_131_1253.pdf

Submitted - 0511282.pdf

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