ARG0002wq4 - merging spirals: radio due to supernovae? AGNs? both? something else?

• by JeanTate

  This is a beautiful nearby (z~0.034) merging system, and both SDSS spectra are dominated by 'nebular' emission lines. The SDSS spectro pipeline classes both of them (the spectra) as STARBURST, and there's plainly a lot of that happening outside the fiber apertures too.

  In a starburst galaxy there will be a huge number of supernovae, and so lots of remnants (SNR); as I understand it there should also be a lot of radio emission. Is the radio emission from the SNR in these galaxies sufficient to account for what's observed? Or must there also be at least one AGN?

  Eye candy:

  

  Posted January 7, 2014 11:24 AM

• by ivywong scientist, admin

  Wow, what a nice pair of galaxies. The optical emission line ratios of both galaxies can be interpreted as being a borderline Star-forming/AGN pair.. At least it has been selected as a possible AGN pair by this previous study: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/bib_query?2011ApJ...737..101L

  On the other hand, the radio emission from the pair comes from the star formation (ie. SNR) rather than being from the AGN.

  Posted January 9, 2014 4:55 AM

• by JeanTate in response to ivywong's comment.

  Thanks.

  I tried to find this pair in the paper ... no luck, apart from the image in one Figure. I couldn't find the link to the online table, and the follow-up paper doesn't seem to mention where the list of ~1200 AGN pairs with tidal features can be found.

  I guess I could download the SDSS spectral parameters/values, and make my own BPT diagram ...

  Posted January 10, 2014 8:30 PM