Mark Keremedjiev et al. 2009 ApJ 690 1105 doi:10.1088/0004-637X/690/2/1105
Mark Keremedjiev1, Lei Hao2,3 and Vassilis Charmandaris4,5,6
Show affiliationsWe present our discovery of a narrow-line Baldwin effect, an anticorrelation between the equivalent width (EW) of a line and the flux of the associated continuum, in 5-20 μm mid-infrared (mid-IR) lines from a sample of 68 active galactic nuclei (AGNs), located at z< 0.5, observed with the Infrared Spectrograph on the Spitzer Space Telescope. Our analysis reveals a clear anticorrelation between the EW of the [S IV] 10.51 μm, [Ne II] 12.81 μm, and [Ne III] 15.56 μm lines and their mid-IR continuum luminosities, while the Baldwin effect for [Ne V] 14.32 μm is not as obvious. We suggest that this anticorrelation is driven by the central AGN, and not circumnuclear star formation in the host galaxy, and present a new method of analyzing this effect in mid-IR lines. We also find that the slope of the narrow-line Baldwin effect in the mid-IR does not appear to steepen with increasing ionization potential. Examining the dependence of the EW on the Eddington ratio (L/L Edd), we find no strong relationship for mid-IR lines. Our study indicates that the narrow-line mid-IR Baldwin effect is quite different from the broad-line optical/UV Baldwin effect, and it is possible that the two effects are unrelated. The anticorrelations discovered open new possibilities in understanding the physics of the ionizing region and the continuum reprocessing by dust.
galaxies: active; infrared: galaxies; quasars: emission lines
Issue 2 (2009 January 10)
Received 2008 June 18, accepted for publication 2008 August 22
Published 2008 December 2
Mark Keremedjiev et al. 2009 ApJ 690 1105
H. W. W. Spoon et al. 2009 ApJ 693 1223
J. Bernard-Salas et al. 2009 ApJS 184 230
Yanling Wu et al. 2009 ApJ 701 658
Almudena Alonso-Herrero et al. 2009 ApJ 697 660
Lucio Rossi 2010 Supercond. Sci. Technol. 23 034001
James Gray et al JHEP05(2008)099
Vijay Balasubramanian et al JHEP12(2005)006
Vijay Balasubramanian et al JHEP05(2008)067
Vishnu Jejjala et al JCAP06(2003)002