arXiv subjects

Alessandro Capetti

Publications and source records attributed to Alessandro Capetti.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2010

Accretion and nuclear activity in Virgo early-type galaxies

We use Chandra observations to estimate the accretion rate of hot gas onto the central supermassive black hole in four giant (of stellar mass 10E11 - 10E12 solar masses) early-type galaxies located in the Virgo cluster. They are characterized by an extremely low radio luminosity, in the range L < 3E25 - 10E27 erg/s/Hz. We find that, accordingly, accretion in these objects occurs at an extremely low rate, 0.2 - 3.7 10E-3 solar masses per year, and that they smoothly extend the relation accretion - jet power found for more powerful radio-galaxies. This confirms the dominant role of hot gas and of the galactic coronae in powering radio-loud active galactic nuclei across ~ 4 orders of magnitude in luminosity. A suggestive trend between jet power and location within the cluster also emerges.

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arXiv2010

On the spectro-photometric properties of the bulk of the radio-loud AGN population

In a previous paper we showed that the radio sources selected by combining large areas radio and optical surveys, present a strong deficit of radio emission with respect to 3CR radio-galaxies matched in line emission luminosity. We argued that the prevalence of sources with luminous extended radio structures in high flux limited samples is due to a selection bias. Sources with low radio power form the bulk of the radio-loud AGN population but are still virtually unexplored. We here analyze their photometric and spectroscopic properties. From the point of view of their emission lines, the majority of the sample are Low Excitation Galaxies (LEG), similar to the 3CR objects at the same level of line luminosity. The hosts of LEG are red, massive Early-Type Galaxies (ETG) with large black holes masses , statistically indistinguishable from the hosts of low redshift 3CR/LEG sources. No genuine radio-loud LEG could be found associated with black holes with a mass substantially lower than 10^8 M(sun) or with a late type host. The fraction of galaxies with signs of star formation (5%) is similar to what is found in both the quiescent ETG and 3CR/LEG hosts. We conclude that the deficit in radio emission cannot be ascribed to differences in the properties of their hosts. We argue that instead this could be due to a temporal evolution of the radio luminosity. A minority (10%) of the sample show rather different properties, being associated with low black hole masses, with spiral galaxies, or showing a high excitation spectrum. In general these outliers are the result of the contamination from Seyfert and from galaxies where the radio emission is powered by star formation. For the objects with high excitation spectra there is no a clear discontinuity in either the host or nuclear properties as they span from radio-quiet and radio-loud AGN.

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arXiv2010

Is BL Lacertae an "orphan" AGN? Multiband and spectroscopic constraints on the parent population

We have analysed optical spectra of BL Lacertae, the prototype of its class, to verify the presence and possible flux variations of its broad Ha line. We used the spectroscopic information also to investigate the question of its parent population. Four spectra were acquired at the TNG in 2007-2008, when the source was in a relatively faint state. In three cases we were able to measure the broad Ha and several narrow emission lines. A comparison with previous results suggests that the broad Ha has increased by ~50% in ten years, a change not unusual for Broad Lined AGN. We estimated a black hole mass for BL Lac of 4-6 10^8 solar masses from its relation with the bulge luminosity. The virial mass estimated from the spectroscopic data is instead 20-30 times smaller. We suggest that this discrepancy is due to the BL Lac BLR being underluminous. Finally, we addressed the problem of the BL Lac parent population, comparing its isotropic quantities with those of other AGN classes. From the point of view of the narrow emission line spectrum, the source locates close to low-excitation radio galaxies. When also considering its diffuse radio power, an association with FRI radio galaxies is severely questioned due to the lower radio luminosity (at give line luminosity) of BL Lac. The narrow line and radio luminosities of BL Lac instead match those of a sample of miniature radio galaxies, which however do not show a BLR. Yet, if existing, "misaligned BL Lac" objects should have entered that sample. We also rule out the possibility that they have been excluded because of a QSO optical appearance. The observational constraints suggest that BL Lac is caught in a short term transient stage, which does not leave a detectable evolutionary "trace" in the AGN population. We speculate on a scenario that can account for the observed properties. [ABRIDGED]

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arXiv2010

Hubble Space Telescope Near Infrared Snapshot Survey of 3CR radio source counterparts III: Radio galaxies and quasars in context

We compare the near-infrared (NIR) H band photometric and morphological properties of low-redshift (z<0.3) 3CR radio galaxies with samples of BL Lac object and quasar host galaxies, merger remnants, quiescent elliptical galaxies, and brightest cluster galaxies drawn from the literature. In general the 3CR host galaxies are consistent with luminous (~L*) elliptical galaxies. The vast majority of FR II's (~80%) occupy the most massive ellipticals and form a homogeneous population that is comparable to the population of radio-loud quasar (RLQ) host galaxies in the literature. However, a significant minority (~20%) of the 3CR FR II's appears under-luminous with respect to quasar host galaxies. All FR II objects in this faint tail are either unusually red, or appear to be the brightest objects within a group. We discuss the apparent differences between the radio galaxy and RLQ host galaxy populations. RLQs appear to require >1E11 M_sun host galaxies (and ~1E9 M_sun black holes), whereas radio galaxies and RQQs can exist in galaxies down to 3E10 M_sun. This may be due to biases in the measured quasar host galaxy luminosities or populations studied, or due to a genuine difference in host galaxy. If due to a genuine difference, it would support the idea that radio and optical active galactic nucleii are two separate populations with a significant overlap.

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arXiv2009

An optical spectroscopic survey of the 3CR sample of radio galaxies with z<0.3. II. Spectroscopic classes and accretion modes in radio-loud AGN

We use the emission line measurements of 3CR radio sources with redshift < 0.3, to explore their spectroscopic properties. The 3CR sources show a bimodal distribution of Excitation Index, a new spectroscopic indicator that measures the relative intensity of low and high excitation lines. This unveils the presence of two main sub-populations of radio-loud AGN, High and Low Excitation Galaxies (HEG and LEG, respectively). All broad-line objects are HEG from the point of view of their narrow emission line ratios and all HEG are FRII radio-galaxies with log L(178) [erg/s] > 32.8. Conversely LEG cover the whole range of radio power encompassed by this 3CR subsample (30.7 < log L(178) < 35.4) and they are of both FRI and FRII type. The brightest LEG are all FRII. HEG and LEG obey to two (quasi) linear correlations between the optical line and extended radio luminosities, with HEG being brighter than LEG in the [OIII] line by a factor of ~10. HEG and LEG are offset also in a plane that compares the black hole mass and the ionizing nuclear luminosity. However, although HEG are associated with higher nuclear luminosities, we find LEG among the brightest radio sources of the sample and with a clear FRII morphology, indistinguishable from those seen in HEG. This suggests that LEG are not simply objects with a lower level of accretion. We speculate that the differences between LEG and HEG are related to a different mode of accretion: LEG are powered by hot gas, while HEG require the presence of cold accreting material. The high temperature of the accreting gas in LEG accounts for the lack of "cold" structures (i.e. molecular torus and Broad Line Region), for the reduced radiative output of the accretion disk, and for the lower gas excitation. [ABRIDGED]

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arXiv2009

Radio and spectroscopic properties of miniature radio galaxies: revealing the bulk of the radio-loud AGN population

We explore radio and spectroscopic properties of a sample of 14 miniature radio galaxies, i.e. early-type core galaxies hosting radio-loud AGN of extremely low radio power, 10^(27-29) erg s^(-1) Hz^(-1) at 1.4 GHz. Miniature radio galaxies smoothly extend the relationships found for the more powerful FRI radio galaxies between emission line, optical and radio nuclear luminosities to lower levels. However, they have a deficit of a factor of ~100 in extended radio emission with respect to that of the classical example of 3CR/FRI. This is not due to their low luminosity, since we found radio galaxies of higher radio core power, similar to those of 3CR/FRI, showing the same behavior, i.e. lacking significant extended radio emission. Such sources form the bulk of the population of radio-loud AGN in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. At a given level of nuclear emission, one can find radio sources with an extremely wide range, a factor of >~100, of radio power. We argue that the prevalence of sources with luminous extended radio structures in flux limited samples is due to a selection bias, since the inclusion of such objects is highly favored. The most studied catalogues of radio galaxies are thus composed by the minority of radio-loud AGN that meet the physical conditions required to form extended radio sources, while the bulk of the population is virtually unexplored.

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arXiv2009

A VLA radio-survey of early-type galaxies in the Virgo cluster

We present the results of a 8.4 GHz Very Large Array radio survey of early-type galaxies extracted from the ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. The aim of this survey is to investigate the origin of radio emission in early-type galaxies and its link with the host properties in an unexplored territory toward the lowest levels of both radio and optical luminosities. Radio images, available for all 63 galaxies with BT < 14.4, show the presence of a compact radio source in 12 objects, with fluxes spanning from 0.13 to 2700 mJy. The remaining 51 galaxies, undetected at a flux limit of ~0.1 mJy, have radio luminosities L < 4 10E18 W/Hz . The fraction of radio-detected galaxies are a strong function of stellar mass, in agreement with previous results: none of the 30 galaxies with stellar mass M(star) < 1.7 10E10 M(sun) is detected, while 8 of the 11 most massive galaxies have radio cores. There appears to be no simple relation between the presence of a stellar nucleus and radio emission. A multiwavelength analysis of the active galactic nucleus (AGN) emission, combining radio and X-ray data, confirms the link between optical surface brightness profile and radio loudness in the sense that the bright core galaxies are associated with radio-loud AGNs, while non-core galaxies host radio-quiet AGNs. Not all radio-detected galaxies have a X-ray nuclear counter part (and vice-versa). A complete census of AGNs (and supermassive black holes, SMBHs) thus requires observations, at least, in both bands. Nonetheless, there are massive galaxies in the sample, expected to host a large SMBH (M(BH) ~ 10E8 M(sun)), whose nuclear emission eludes detection despite their proximity and the depth and the spatial resolution of the available observations. Most likely this is due to an extremely low level of accretion onto the central SMBH.

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arXiv2009

HST/ACS Emission Line Imaging of Low Redshift 3CR Radio Galaxies I: The Data

We present 19 nearby (z<0.3) 3CR radio galaxies imaged at low- and high-excitation as part of a Cycle 15 Hubble Space Telescope snapshot survey with the Advanced Camera for Surveys. These images consist of exposures of the H-alpha (6563 Å, plus [NII] contamination) and [OIII] 5007 Åemission lines using narrow-band linear ramp filters adjusted according to the redshift of the target. To facilitate continuum subtraction, a single-pointing 60 s line-free exposure was taken with a medium-band filter appropriate for the target's redshift. We discuss the steps taken to reduce these images independently of the automated recalibration pipeline so as to use more recent ACS flat-field data as well as to better reject cosmic rays. We describe the method used to produce continuum-free (pure line-emission) images, and present these images along with qualitative descriptions of the narrow-line region morphologies we observe. We present H-alpha+[NII] and [OIII] line fluxes from aperture photometry, finding the values to fall expectedly on the redshift-luminosity trend from a past HST/WFPC2 emission line study of a larger, generally higher redshift subset of the 3CR. We also find expected trends between emission line luminosity and total radio power, as well as a positive correlation between the size of the emission line region and redshift. We discuss the associated interpretation of these results, and conclude with a summary of future work enabled by this dataset.

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arXiv2009

Low-power Radio Galaxies in the Distant Universe: A search for FRI at 1<z<2 in the COSMOS field

We present a search for FRI radio galaxies between 1 < z < 2 in the COSMOS field. In absence of spectroscopic redshift measurements, the selection method is based on multiple steps which make use of both radio and optical constraints. The basic assumptions are that 1) the break in radio power between low-power FRIs and the more powerful FRIIs does not change with redshift, and 2) that the photometric properties of the host galaxies of low power radio galaxies in the distant universe are similar to those of FRIIs in the same redshift bin, as is the case for nearby radio galaxies. We describe the results of our search, which yields 37 low-power radio galaxy candidates that are possibly FRIs. We show that a large fraction of these low-luminosity radio galaxies display a compact radio morphology, that does not correspond to the FRI morphological classification. Furthermore, our objects are apparently associated with galaxies that show clear signs of interactions, at odds with the typical behavior observed in low-z FRI hosts. The compact radio morphology might imply that we are observing intrinsically small and possibly young objects, that will eventually evolve into the giant FRIs we observe in the local universe. One of the objects appears as point-like in HST images. This might belong to a population of FRI-QSOs, which however would represent a tiny minority of the overall population of high-z FRIs. As for the local FRIs, a large fraction of our objects are likely to be associated with groups or clusters, making them "beacons" for high redshift clusters of galaxies. Our search for candidate high-z FRIs we present in this paper constitutes a pilot study for objects to be observed with future high-resolution and high-sensitivity instruments (shortened)

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arXiv2009

An optical spectroscopic survey of the 3CR sample of radio galaxies with z<0.3. I. Presentation of the data

We present a homogeneous and 92 % complete dataset of optical nuclear spectra for the 113 3CR radio sources with redshifts < 0.3, obtained with the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo. For these sources we could obtain uniform and uninterrupted coverage of the key spectroscopic optical diagnostics. The observed sample, including powerful classical FR II radio-galaxies and FR I, together spanning four orders of magnitude in radio-luminosity, provides a broad representation of the spectroscopic properties of radio galaxies. In this first paper we present an atlas of the spectra obtained, provide measurements of the diagnostic emission line ratios, and identify active nuclei with broad line emission. These data will be used in follow-up papers to address the connection between the optical spectral characteristics and the multiwavelength properties of the sample.

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arXiv2008

Recent star formation in nearby 3CR radio-galaxies from UV HST observations

We analyzed HST images of 31 nearby (z <~ 0.1) 3CR radio-galaxies. We compared their UV and optical images to detect evidence of recent star formation. Six objects were excluded because they are highly nucleated or had very low UV count rates. After subtracting the emission from their nuclei and/or jets, 12 of the remaining 25 objects, presenting an UV/optical colors NUV - r < 5.4, are potential star-forming candidates. Considering the contamination from other AGN-related processes (UV emission lines, nebular continuum, and scattered nuclear light), there are 6 remaining star-forming "blue" galaxies. We then divide the radio galaxies, on the basis of the radio morphology, radio power, and diagnostic optical line ratios, into low and high excitation galaxies, LEG and HEG. While there is no correlation between the FR type (or radio power) and color, the FR type is clearly related to the spectroscopic type. In fact, all HEG (with one possible exception) show morphological evidence of recent star formation in UV compact knots, extended over 5-20 kpc. Conversely, there is only 1 "blue" LEG out of 19, including in this class also FR I galaxies. The picture that emerges, considering color, UV, optical, and dust morphology, is that only in HEG recent star formation is associated with these relatively powerful AGN, which are most likely triggered by a recent, major, wet merger. Conversely, in LEG galaxies the fraction of actively star-forming objects is not enhanced with respect to quiescent galaxies. The AGN activity in these sources can be probably self-sustained by their hot interstellar medium.

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arXiv2008

Optical spectroscopy of 3CR sample of radio sources at z<0.3

We are carrying out a program of optical spectroscopy of the complete subsample of the 3CR catalog of radio sources at redshift z < 0.3. The sample consists of 113 3CR sources, comprising FR I, FR II radio galaxies and Quasars. Complete datasets in other bands are already or will be soon available for the whole sample but the optical spectra are sparse and inhomogeneous in quality. The observations are carried out at the 3.58m Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG, La Palma). More than 100 sources have been already observed. We present here the preliminary results on the analysis of the high and low resolution spectra. We found that sources can be spectroscopically characterized as: High Excitation Galaxies (HEG), Low Excitation Galaxies (LEG) and "Relic" AGNs. This classification is supported by the optical - radio correlations in which objects spectroscopically different follow different correlations. We conclude that AGNs with the same radio power can be fueled with different accretion properties. "Relic" radio-galaxies are characterized by extreme low excitation spectra that we interpret as nuclei whose activity has recently turned-off. The full spectral catalog will be made available to the scientific community.

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arXiv2008

HST NIR Snapshot Survey of 3CR Radio Source Counterparts II: An Atlas and Inventory of the Host Galaxies, Mergers and Companions

We present the second part of an H-band (1.6 microns) atlas of z<0.3 3CR radio galaxies, using the Hubble Space Telescope Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (HST NICMOS2). We present new imaging for 21 recently acquired sources, and host galaxy modeling for the full sample of 101 (including 11 archival) -- an 87% completion rate. Two different modeling techniques are applied, following those adopted by the galaxy morphology and the quasar host galaxy communities. Results are compared, and found to be in excellent agreement, although the former breaks down in the case of strongly nucleated sources. Companion sources are tabulated, and the presence of mergers, tidal features, dust disks and jets are catalogued. The tables form a catalogue for those interested in the structural and morphological dust-free host galaxy properties of the 3CR sample, and for comparison with morphological studies of quiescent galaxies and quasar host galaxies. Host galaxy masses are estimated, and found to typically lie at around 2*10^11 solar masses. In general, the population is found to be consistent with the local population of quiescent elliptical galaxies, but with a longer tail to low Sersic index, mainly consisting of low-redshift (z<0.1) and low-radio-power (FR I) sources. A few unusually disky FR II host galaxies are picked out for further discussion. Nearby external sources are identified in the majority of our images, many of which we argue are likely to be companion galaxies or merger remnants. The reduced NICMOS data are now publicly available from our website (http://archive.stsci.edu/prepds/3cr/)

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arXiv2008

The accretion mechanism in low-power radio galaxies

We study a sample of 44 low-luminosity radio-loud AGN, which represent a range of nuclear radio-power spanning 5 orders of magnitude, to unveil the accretion mechanism in these galaxies. We estimate the accretion rate of gas associated with their hot coronae by analyzing archival Chandra data, to derive the deprojected density and temperature profiles in a spherical approximation. Measuring the jet power from the nuclear radio-luminosity, we find that the accretion power correlates linearly with the jet power, with an efficiency of conversion from rest mass into jet power of ~0.012. These results strengthen and extend the validity of the results obtained by Allen and collaborators for 9 radio galaxies, indicating that hot gas accretion is the dominant process in FR I radio galaxies across their full range of radio-luminosity. We find that the different levels of nuclear activity are driven by global differences in the structure of the galactic hot coronae. A linear relation links the jet power with the host X-ray surface brightness. This implies that a substantial change in the jet power must be accompanied by a global change in its ISM properties, driven for example by a major merger. This correlation provides a simple widely applicable method to estimate the jet-power of a given object by observing the intensity of its host X-ray emission. To maintain the mass flow in the jet, the fraction of gas that crosses the Bondi radius reaching the accretion disk must be > 0.002. This implies that the radiative efficiency of the disk must be < 0.005, an indication that accretion in these objects occurs not only at a lower rate, but also at lower efficiency than in standard accretion disks.

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arXiv2007

Measuring supermassive black holes with gas kinematics - II. The LINERs IC 989, NGC 5077, and NGC 6500

We present results from a kinematical study of the gas in the nucleus of a sample of three LINER galaxies, obtained from archival HST/STIS long-slit spectra. We found that, while for the elliptical galaxy NGC 5077, the observed velocity curves are consistent with gas in regular rotation around the galaxy's center, this is not the case for the two remaining objects. By modeling the surface brightness distribution and rotation curve from the emission lines in NGC 5077, we found that the observed kinematics of the circumnuclear gas can be accurately reproduced by adding to the stellar mass component a black hole mass of M_bh = 6.8 (-2.8,+4.3) 10**8 M_sun (uncertainties at a 1 sigma level); the radius of its sphere of influence (R_sph ~ 0".34) is well-resolved at the HST resolution. The BH mass estimate in NGC 5077 is in fairly good agreement with both the M_bh-M_bul (with an upward scatter of ~ 0.4 dex) and M_bh-sigma correlations (with an upward scatter of 0.5 dex in the Tremaine et al. form and essentially no scatter using the Ferrarese et al. form) and provides further support for the presence of a connection between the ``residuals'' from the M_bh-sigma correlation and the bulge effective radius. This indicates the presence of a black hole's ``fundamental plane'' in the sense that a combination of at least sigma and R_e drives the correlations between M_bh and host bulge properties.

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arXiv2007

On the nature of optical nuclei in FR I radio-galaxies from ACS/HST imaging polarimetry

We obtained optical imaging polarimetry with the ACS/HRC aboard the HST of the 9 closest radio-galaxies in the 3C catalogue with an FR I morphology. The nuclear sources seen in direct HST images in these galaxies are found to be highly polarized with levels in the range ~2-11 % with a median value of 7 %. We discuss the different mechanisms that produce polarized emission and conclude that the only viable interpretation is a synchrotron origin for the optical nuclei. This idea is strengthened by the analogy with the polarization properties of BL Lac objects, providing also further support to the FRI/BL Lac unified model. This confirms previous suggestions that the dominant emission mechanism in low luminosity radio-loud AGN is related to non-thermal radiation produced by the base of their jets. In addition to the nuclear polarization (and to the large scale optical jets), polarization is detected co-spatially with the dusty circumnuclear disks, likely due to dichroic transmission; the polarization vectors are tangential to the disks as expected when the magnetic field responsible for the grains alignment is stretched by differential rotation. We explored the possibility to detect the polarimetric signature of a misaligned radiation beam in FR I, expected in our sources in the frame of the FR I/ BL Lac unification. We did not find this effect in any of the galaxies, but our the results are not conclusive on whether a misaligned beam is indeed present in FR I.

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arXiv2007

Isophotal Structure and Dust Distribution in Radio-Loud Elliptical Galaxies

We investigate isophotal properties and dust morphology in the nuclear regions of 84 radio galaxies, imaged in the optical and near-infrared as part of Hubble Space Telescope snapshot surveys. We present a sample-wide trend between host galaxy isophotal structure and the inclination of dusty circumnuclear disks at the centers of 13 of these objects. We find that galaxies containing edge-on disks are invariably seen to possess boxy isophotes, while round, face-on disks are seen exclusively in objects with round or elliptical isophotes. Dust-rich sources with disky isophotes are observed only to possess dust in the form of extended filamentary lanes, and not in settled distributions like disks. As we do not expect that edge-on and face-on disks reside in different populations of galaxies, we conclude that perceived isophotal boxiness is dependent upon the angle at which the observer views the host galaxy's axis of symmetry. We discuss our results in the context of dissipative merger scenarios, and infer that dusty disks primarily reside in old, boxy remnants of gas-poor galaxy mergers, whereas filamentary dust lanes reside in younger disky remnants of gas-rich mergers.

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arXiv2007

The host galaxy/AGN connection. Brightness profiles of early-type galaxies hosting Seyfert nuclei

[ABRIDGED] We recently presented evidence of a connection between the brightness profiles of nearby early-type galaxies and the properties of the AGN they host. The radio loudness of the AGN appears to be univocally related to the host's brightness profile: radio-loud nuclei are only hosted by ``core'' galaxies while radio-quiet AGN are only found in ``power-law'' galaxies. We extend our analysis here to a sample of 42 nearby (V < 7000 km/s) Seyfert galaxies hosted by early-type galaxies. We used the available HST images to study their brightness profiles. Having excluded complex and highly nucleated galaxies, in the remaining 16 objects the brightness profiles can be successfully modeled with a Nuker law with a steep nuclear cusp characteristic of ``power-law'' galaxies (with logarithmic slope 0.51 - 1.07). This result is what is expected for these radio-quiet AGN based on our previous findings, thus extending the validity of the connection between brightness profile and radio loudness to AGN of a far higher luminosity. We explored the robustness of this result against a different choice of the analytic form for the brightness profiles, using a Sersic law. In no object could we find evidence of a central light deficit with respect to a pure Sersic model, the defining feature of ``core'' galaxies in this modeling framework. We conclude that, regardless of the modeling strategy, the dichotomy of AGN radio loudness can be univocally related to the host's brightness profile. Our general results can be re-phrased as ``radio-loud nuclei are hosted by core galaxies, while radio-quiet AGN are found in non-core galaxies''.

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