1999A&A...344..767C -
Astronomy and Astrophysics, volume 344, 767-778 (1999/4-3)
A molecular outflow in the Circinus galaxy.
CURRAN S.J., RYDBECK G., JOHANSSON L.E.B. and BOOTH R.S.
Abstract (from CDS):
From previous work on the Circinus galaxy we postulated that ≃50% of the molecular gas in this type 2 Seyfert nucleus is distributed in a sub-kiloparsec circumnuclear ring, probably associated with the ongoing star-burst. In addition to this, we postulated the possible presence of a molecular outflow along the galaxy's minor axis. In this work we use a modified version of the routine used previously (Curran et al.,
1998A&A...338..863C) in order to model this feature. From our results we believe that a 90° wide outflow, which constitutes ≃40% of the molecular gas within the central ±600pc, extends to a distance of ≃±500pc along the rotation axis of the ring with a maximum velocity of ≃190km/s. The bulk velocity, which is somewhat lower than this, gives an estimate of >10
7L
☉ for the mechanical luminosity of the outflow. Armed with a model of the molecular gas distribution, and the fact that the large scale molecular ring appears to be perpendicular to the outflow/radio jets, we modelled how the CO luminosity varies with ring and outflow inclination i.e. Seyfert type. Our results show that in the case of a ring+outflow system, we expect very little difference in the luminosities of a face-on and an identical edge-on system. In the case of a ring only distribution however, we do expect, due to ``hole'' in the gas, slightly more emission from a sufficiently close edge-on system, but still not enough to account for the differences in CO luminosities which have been observed between type 1 and type 2 Seyferts. This result supports the notion that something more than mere orientation comes into play when explaining these differences, thus having major implications for the unified theories of active galactic nuclei.
Abstract Copyright:
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Journal keyword(s):
Galaxy: evolution - galaxies: active - galaxies: individual: Circinus galaxy - galaxies: ISM - galaxies: kinematics and dynamics
Simbad objects:
16
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