arXiv subjects

Kenta Matsuoka

Publications and source records attributed to Kenta Matsuoka.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2024

Ongoing and fossil large-scale outflows detected in a high-redshift radio galaxy: [C II] observations of TN J0924$-$2201 at $z=5.174$

We present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observations of the [C II] 158 $μ$m line and the underlying continuum emission of TN J0924$-$2201, which is one of the most distant known radio galaxies at $z>5$. The [C II] line and 1-mm continuum emission are detected at the host galaxy. The systemic redshift derived from the [C II] line is $z_{\rm [C II]}=5.1736\pm0.0002$, indicating that the Ly$α$ line is redshifted by a velocity of $1035\pm10$ km s$^{-1}$, marking the largest velocity offset between the [C II] and Ly$α$ lines recorded at $z>5$ to date. In the central region of the host galaxy, we identified a redshifted substructure of [C II] with a velocity of $702\pm17$ km s$^{-1}$, which is close to the CIV line with a velocity of $500\pm10$ km s$^{-1}$. The position and the velocity offsets align with a model of an outflowing shell structure, consistent with the large velocity offset of Ly$α$. The non-detection of [C II] and dust emission from the three CO(1--0)-detected companions indicates their different nature compared to dwarf galaxies based on the photodissociation region model. Given their large velocity of $\sim1500$ km s$^{-1}$, outflowing molecular clouds induced by the AGN is the most plausible interpretation, and they may exceed the escape velocity of a $10^{13}\,M_{\odot}$ halo. These results suggest that TN J0924$-$2201, with the ongoing and fossil large-scale outflows, is in a distinctive phase of removing molecular gas from a central massive galaxy in an overdense region in the early universe. A dusty HI absorber at the host galaxy is an alternative interpretation.

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arXiv2022

Multi-line assessment of narrow-line regions in $z \sim$ 3 radio galaxies

In this paper, we utilize high-quality rest-UV spectra of three radio galaxies at $z \sim$ 3 observed with VLT/FORS2 to measure the flux of several emission lines including relatively faint ones, such as NIV]$λ$1486, OIII]$λ$1663, and [NeIV]$λ$2424. Additionally, we collect fluxes of faint rest-UV emission lines in 12 $z \sim$ 3 radio galaxies from the literature. Previously, physical and chemical properties of narrow-line regions (NLRs) in high-$z$ active galactic nuclei (AGNs) have been investigated mostly by using only strong rest-UV emission-lines (e.g., NV$λ$1240, CIV$λ$1549, HeII$λ$1640, and CIII]$λ$1909). Such strong-line diagnostics are based on various assumptions due to the limitation in the number of available emission-line constraints. In this work, both physical and chemical properties of NLR clouds in each object are estimated by fitting detailed photoionization models to the measured emission-line fluxes. We confirm that the metallicity of NLRs in AGNs at $z \sim$ 3 is solar or super-solar, without assuming the gas density and ionization parameter thanks to the constrains from the faint emission lines. This result suggests that high-$z$ radio galaxies are already chemically matured at $z \sim$ 3.

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arXiv2020

The Faint End of the Quasar Luminosity Function at $z \sim 5$ from the Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam Survey

We present the quasar luminosity function at $z \sim 5$ derived from the optical wide-field survey data obtained as a part of the Subaru strategic program (SSP) with Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC). From $\sim$81.8 deg$^2$ area in the Wide layer of the HSC-SSP survey, we selected 224 candidates of low-luminosity quasars at $z \sim 5$ by adopting the Lyman-break method down to $i = 24.1$ mag. Based on our candidates and spectroscopically-confirmed quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), we derived the quasar luminosity function at $z \sim 5$ covering a wide luminosity range of $-28.76 < M_{\rm 1450} < -22.32$ mag. We found that the quasar luminosity function is fitted by a double power-law model with a break magnitude of $M^{*}_{1450} = -25.05^{+0.10}_{-0.24}$ mag. The inferred number density of low-luminosity quasars is lower, and the derived faint-end slope, $-1.22^{+0.03}_{-0.10}$, is flatter than those of previous studies at $z \sim 5$. A compilation of the quasar luminosity function at $4 \leq z \leq 6$ from the HSC-SSP suggests that there is little redshift evolution in the break magnitude and in the faint-end slope within this redshift range, although previous studies suggest that the faint-end slope becomes steeper at higher redshifts. The number density of low-luminosity quasars decreases more rapidly from $z \sim 5$ to $z \sim 6$ than from $z \sim 4$ to $z \sim 5$.

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arXiv2020

Metal enrichment in the circumgalactic medium and Lyα haloes around quasars at z $\sim$3

Deep observations have detected extended Ly$α$ emission nebulae surrounding tens of quasars at redshift 2 to 6. However, the metallicity of such extended haloes is still poorly understood. We perform a detailed analysis on a large sample of 80 quasars at $z\sim3$ based on MUSE-VLT data. We find clear evidence of extended emission of the UV nebular lines such as CIV or HeII for about 20$\%$ of the sample, while CIII] is only marginally detected in a few objects. By stacking the cubes we detect emission of CIV, HeII and CIII] out to a radius of about 45 kpc. CIV and HeII show a radial decline much steeper than Ly$α$, while CIII] shows a shallower profile similar to Ly$α$ in the inner 45 kpc. We infer that the average metallicity of the circumgalactic gas within the central 30-50~kpc is $\sim$0.5 solar, or even higher. However, we also find evidence of a component of the Ly$α$ haloes, which has much weaker metal emission lines relative to Ly$α$. We suggest that the high metallicity of the circumgalactic medium within the central 30-50 kpc is associated with chemical pre-enrichment by past quasar-driven outflows and that there is a more extended component of the CGM that has much lower metallicity and likely associated with near-pristine gas accreted from the intergalactic medium. We show that our observational results are in good agreement with the expectations of the FABLE zoom-in cosmological simulations.

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arXiv2019

NuSTAR Discovery of Dead Quasar Engine in Arp 187

Recent active galactic nucleus (AGN) and quasar surveys have revealed a population showing rapid AGN luminosity variability by a factor of $\sim10$. Here we present the most drastic AGN luminosity decline by a factor of $\gtrsim 10^{3}$ constrained by a NuSTAR X-ray observation of the nearby galaxy Arp 187, which is a promising "dead" quasar whose current activity seems quiet but whose past activity of $L_\mathrm{bol} \sim 10^{46}$ erg s$^{-1}$ is still observable at a large scale by its light echo. The obtained upper bound of the X-ray luminosity is $\log (L_{\rm 2-10 keV}/{\rm erg} {\rm s}^{-1}) < 41.2$, corresponding to $\log (L_\mathrm{bol}/{\rm erg} {\rm s}^{-1}) < 42.5$, indicating an inactive central engine. Even if a putative torus model with $N_\mathrm{H} \sim 1.5 \times 10^{24}$ cm$^{-2}$ is assumed, the strong upper-bound still holds with $\log (L_{\rm 2-10 keV}/{\rm erg} {\rm s}^{-1}) < 41.8$ or $\log (L_\mathrm{bol}/{\rm erg} {\rm s}^{-1}) < 43.1$. Given the expected size of the narrow line region, this luminosity decrease by a factor of $\gtrsim 10^3$ must have occurred within $\lesssim 10^4$ yr. This extremely rapid luminosity/accretion shutdown is puzzling and it requires one burst-like accretion mechanism producing a clear outer boundary for an accretion disk. We raise two possible scenarios realizing such an accretion mechanism: a mass accretion 1) by the tidal disruption of a molecular cloud and/or 2) by the gas depletion as a result of vigorous nuclear starformation after rapid mass inflow to the central engine.

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arXiv2019

A NuSTAR and XMM-Newton Study of the Two Most Actively Star-forming Green Pea Galaxies (SDSS J0749+3337 and SDSS J0822+2241)

We explore X-ray evidence for the presence of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in the two most actively star-forming Green Pea galaxies (GPs), SDSS J0749+3337 and SDSS J0822+2241, which have star-formation rates (SFRs) of $123~M_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$ and $78~M_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$, respectively. The GPs have red mid-infrared (MIR) spectral energy distributions and higher 22 $μ$m luminosities than expected from a proxy of the SFR (H$α$ luminosity), consistent with hosting AGNs with 2-10 keV luminosities of $\sim10^{44}$ erg s$^{-1}$. We thus obtain and analyze the first hard ($>$ 10 keV) X-ray data observed with NuSTAR and archival XMM-Newton data below 10 keV. From the NuSTAR $\approx$20 ksec data, however, we find no significant hard X-ray emission. By contrast, soft X-ray emission with 0.5--8 keV luminosities of $\approx10^{42}$ erg s$^{-1}$ is significantly detected in both targets, which can be explained only by star formation (SF). A possible reason for the lack of clear evidence is that a putative AGN torus absorbs most of the X-ray emission. Applying a smooth-density AGN torus model, we determine minimum hydrogen column densities along the equatorial plane ($N_{\rm H}^{\rm eq}$) consistent with the non-detection. The results indicate $N_{\rm H}^{\rm eq} \gtrsim 2\times10^{24}$ cm$^{-2}$ for SDSS J0749+3337 and $N_{\rm H}^{\rm eq} \gtrsim 5\times10^{24}$ cm$^{-2}$ for SDSS J0822+2241. Therefore, the GPs may host such heavily obscured AGNs. Otherwise, no AGN exists and the MIR emission is ascribed to SF. Active SF in low-mass galaxies is indeed suggested to reproduce red MIR colors. This would imply that diagnostics based on MIR photometry data alone may misidentify such galaxies as AGNs.

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arXiv2018

Does the mid-infrared-hard X-ray luminosity relation for active galactic nuclei depend on Eddington ratio?

We revisit the correlation between the mid-infrared (6 $μ$m) and hard X-ray (2--10 keV) luminosities of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) to understand the physics behind it. We construct an X-ray flux-limited sample of 571 type 1 AGNs with $f_{0.5-2.0 \,{\rm keV}} > 2.4 \times 10^{-12}$ erg cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$, drawn from the ROSAT Bright Survey catalog. Cross-matching the sample with infrared data taken from Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, we investigate the relation between the rest-frame 6 $μ$m luminosity ($L_{\rm 6}$) and the rest-frame 2--10 keV luminosity ($L_{\rm X}$), where $L_{\rm 6}$ is corrected for the contamination of host galaxies by using the spectral energy distribution fitting technique. We confirm that $L_{\rm 6}$ and $L_{\rm X}$ are correlated over four orders of magnitude, in the range of $L_{\rm X} = 10^{42-46}$ erg s$^{-1}$. We investigate what kinds of physical parameters regulate this correlation. We find that $L_{\rm X}$/$L_{\rm 6}$ clearly depends on the Eddington ratio ($λ_{\rm Edd}$) as $\log λ_{\rm Edd} = -(0.56 \pm 0.10) \log \, (L_{\rm X}/L_{\rm 6}) - (1.07 \pm 0.05)$, even taking into account quasars that are undetected by ROSAT as well as those detected by XMM-Newton in the literature. We also add hyper-luminous quasars with $L_{\rm 6}$ $>$ 10$^{46}$ erg s$^{-1}$ in the literature and perform a correlation analysis. The resultant correlation coefficient is $-0.41 \pm 0.07$, indicating a moderately tight correlation between $L_{\rm X}$/$L_{\rm 6}$ and $λ_{\rm Edd}$. This means that AGNs with high Eddington ratios tend to have lower X-ray luminosities with respect to the mid-infrared luminosities. This dependence can be interpreted as a change in the structure of the accretion flow.

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arXiv2018

Ratio of black hole to galaxy mass of an extremely red dust-obscured galaxy at z = 2.52

We present a near-infrared (NIR) spectrum of WISE J1042+1641, an extremely red dust-obscured galaxy (DOG), which has been observed with the LIRIS on the 4.2m William Hershel Telescope. This object was selected as a hyper-luminous DOG candidate at z ~ 2 by combining the optical and IR photometric data based on the SDSS and WISE, although its redshift had not yet been confirmed. Based on the LIRIS observation, we confirmed its redshift of 2.521 and total IR luminosity of log(L_IR/L_sun) = 14.57, which satisfies the criterion for an extremely luminous IR galaxy (ELIRG). Moreover, we indicate that this object seems to have an extremely massive black hole with M_BH = 10^10.92 M_sun based on the broad Halpha line: the host stellar mass is derived as M_star = 10^13.55 M_sun by a fit of the spectral energy distribution. Very recently, it has been reported that this object is an anomalous gravitationally lensed quasar based on near-IR high-resolution imaging data obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope. Its magnification factor has also been estimated with some uncertainty (i.e., mu = 53-122). We investigate the ratio of the black hole to galaxy mass, which is less strongly affected by a lensing magnification factor, instead of the absolute values of the luminosities and masses. We find that the M_BH/M_star ratio (i.e., 0.0140-0.0204) is significantly higher than the local relation, following a sequence of unobscured quasars instead of obscured objects (e.g., submillimeter galaxies) at the same redshift. Moreover, the LIRIS spectrum shows strongly blueshifted oxygen lines with an outflowing velocity of ~ 1100 km/s, and our Swift X-ray observation also supports that this source is an absorbed AGN with an intrinsic column density of N_H = 4.9 x 10^23 cm^-2. These results imply that WISE J1042+1641 is in a blow-out phase at the end of the buried rapid black hole growth.

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arXiv2018

Discovery of Dying Active Galactic Nucleus in Arp 187: Experience of Drastic Luminosity Decline within $10^4$ years

Arp 187 is one of the fading active galactic nuclei (AGN), whose AGN activity is currently decreasing in luminosity. We investigate the observational signatures of AGN in Arp 187, which trace various physical scales from less than 0.1 pc to the nearly 10 kpc, to estimate the longterm luminosity change over $10^{4}$ years. The VLA 5 GHz, 8 GHz, and the ALMA 133 GHz images reveal bimodal jet lobes with $\sim$5 kpc size and the absence of the central radio-core. The 6dF optical spectrum shows that Arp 187 hosts narrow line region with the estimated size of $\sim$1 kpc, and the line strengths give the AGN luminosity of $L_{\rm bol}=1.5 \times 10^{46}$ erg s$^{-1}$. On the other hand, the current AGN activity estimated from the AGN torus emission gives the upper bound of $L_{\rm bol} < 2.2 \times 10^{43}$ erg s$^{-1}$. The absence of the radio-core gives the more strict upper bound of the current AGN luminosity of $L_{\rm bol} < 8.0 \times 10^{40}$ erg s$^{-1}$, suggesting that the central engine is already quenched. These multi-wavelength signatures indicate that Arp 187 hosts a "dying" AGN: the central engine is already dead, but the large scale AGN indicators are still observable as the remnant of the past AGN activity. The central engine has experienced the drastic luminosity decline by a factor of $\sim10^{3-5}$ fainter within $\sim10^{4}$ years, which is roughly consistent with the viscous timescale of the inner part of the accretion disk within $\sim$500 years.

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arXiv2018

The mass-metallicity relation of high-z type-2 active galactic nuclei

The mass-metallicity relation (MZR) of type-2 active galactic nuclei (AGNs) at 1.2 < z < 4.0 is investigated by using high-z radio galaxies (HzRGs) and X-ray selected radio-quiet AGNs. We combine new rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) spectra of two radio-quiet type-2 AGNs obtained with FOCAS on the Subaru Telescope with existing rest-frame UV emission lines, i.e., CIV1549, HeII1640, and CIII]1909, of a sample of 16 HzRGs and 6 additional X-ray selected type-2 AGNs, whose host stellar masses have been estimated in literature. We divided our sample in three stellar mass bins and calculated averaged emission-line flux ratios of CIV1549/HeII1640 and CIII]1909/CIV1549. Comparing observed emission-line flux ratios with photoionization model predictions, we estimated narrow line region (NLR) metallicities for each mass bin. We found that there is a positive correlation between NLR metallicities and stellar masses of type-2 AGNs at z ~ 3. This is the first indication that AGN metallicities are related to their hosts, i.e., stellar mass. Since NLR metallicities and stellar masses follow a similar relation as the MZR in star-forming galaxies at similar redshifts, our results indicate that NLR metallicities are related to those of the host galaxies. This study highlights the importance of considering lower-mass X-ray selected AGNs in addition to radio galaxies to explore the metallicity properties of NLRs at high redshift.

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arXiv2017

Chemical enrichment and accretion of nitrogen-loud quasars

We present rest-frame optical spectra of 12 nitrogen-loud quasars at z ~ 2.2, whose rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) spectra show strong nitrogen broad emission lines. To investigate their narrow-line region (NLR) metallicities, we measure the equivalent width (EW) of the [OIII]5007 emission line: if the NLR metallicity is remarkably high as suggested by strong UV nitrogen lines, the [OIII]5007 line flux should be very week due to the low equilibrium temperature of the ionized gas owing to significant metal cooling. In the result, we found that our spectra show moderate EW of the [OIII]5007 line similar to general quasars. This indicates nitrogen-loud quasars do not have extremely metal-rich gas clouds in NLRs. This suggests that strong nitrogen lines from broad-line regions (BLRs) are originated by exceptionally high abundances of nitrogen relative to oxygen without very high BLR metallicities. This result indicates that broad-emission lines of nitrogen are not good indicators of the BLR metallicity in some cases. On the other hand, we also investigate virial black-hole masses and Eddington ratios by using the Hbeta and CIV1549 lines for our sample. As a result, we found that black-hole masses and Eddington ratios of nitrogen-loud quasars tend to be low and high relative to normal quasars, suggesting that nitrogen-loud quasars seem to be in a rapidly-accreting phase. This can be explained in terms of a positive correlation between Eddington ratios and nitrogen abundances of quasars, that is probably caused by the connection between the mass accretion onto black holes and nuclear star formation.

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arXiv2017

Active Galactic Nuclei with a Low-Metallicity Narrow-Line Region

Low-metallicity active galactic nuclei (AGNs) are interesting to study the early phase of the AGN evolution. However most AGNs are chemically matured and accordingly low-metallicity AGNs are extremely rare. One approach to search for low-metallicity AGNs systematically is utilizing the so-called BPT diagram that consists of the [O III]$λ$5007/H$β$$\lambda4861$ and [N II]$\lambda6584$/H$α$$\lambda6563$ flux ratios. Specifically, photoionization models predict that low-metallicity AGNs show a high [O III]$λ$5007/H$β$$λ$4861 ratio and a relatively low [N II]$λ$6584/H$α$$λ$6563 ratio, that corresponds to the location between the sequence of star-forming galaxies and that of usual AGNs on the BPT diagram (hereafter "the BPT valley"). However, other populations of galaxies such as star-forming galaxies and AGNs with a high electron density or a high ionization parameter could be also located in the BPT valley, not only low-metallicity AGNs. In this paper, we examine whether most of emission-line galaxies at the BPT valley are low-metallicity AGNs or not. We select 70 BPT-valley objects from 212,866 emission line galaxies obtained by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Among the 70 BPT-valley objects, 43 objects show firm evidence of the AGN activity; i.e., the He II$λ$4686 emission and/or weak but significant broad H$α$ emission. Our analysis shows that those 43 BPT-valley AGNs are not characterized by a very high gas density nor ionization parameter, inferring that at least 43 among 70 BPT-valley objects (i.e., $>60$ %) are low-metallicity AGNs. This suggests that the BPT diagram is an efficient tool to search for low-metallicity AGNs.

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arXiv2017

Nature of hard X-ray (3-24 keV) detected luminous infrared galaxies in the COSMOS field

We investigate the nature of far-infrared (70 um) and hard X-ray (3-24 keV) selected galaxies in the COSMOS field detected with both Spitzer and Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR). By matching the Spitzer-COSMOS catalog against the NuSTAR-COSMOS catalog, we obtain a sample consisting of a hyperluminous infrared galaxy with log(L_IR/L_sun) > 13, 12 ultraluminous infrared galaxies with 12 < log(L_IR/L_sun) < 13, and 10 luminous infrared galaxies with 11 < log(L_IR/L_sun) < 12, i.e., 23 Hy/U/LIRGs in total. Using their X-ray hardness ratios, we find that 12 sources are obscured active galactic nuclei (AGNs) with absorption column densities of N_H > 10^22 cm^-2, including several Compton-thick (N_H ~ 10^24 cm^-2) AGN candidates. On the basis of the infrared (60 um) and intrinsic X-ray luminosities, we examine the relation between star-formation (SF) and AGN luminosities of the 23 Hy/U/LIRGs. We find that the correlation is similar to that of optically-selected AGNs reported by Netzer (2009), whereas local, far-infrared selected U/LIRGs show higher SF-to-AGN luminosity ratios than the average of our sample. This result suggests that our Hy/U/LIRGs detected both with Spitzer and NuSTAR are likely situated in a transition epoch between AGN-rising and cold-gas diminishing phases in SF-AGN evolutional sequences. The nature of a Compton-thick AGN candidate newly detected above 8 keV with NuSTAR (ID 245 in Civano et al. 2015) is briefly discussed.

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arXiv2016

The Complete Infrared View of Active Galactic Nuclei from the 70-month Swift/BAT Catalog

We systematically investigate the near- (NIR) to far-infrared (FIR) photometric properties of a nearly complete sample of local active galactic nuclei (AGN) detected in the Swift/Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) all-sky ultra hard X-ray (14-195 keV) survey. Out of 606 non-blazar AGN in the Swift/BAT 70-month catalog at high galactic latitude of $|b|>10^{\circ}$, we obtain IR photometric data of 604 objects by cross-matching the AGN positions with catalogs from the WISE, AKARI, IRAS, and Herschel infrared observatories. We find a good correlation between the ultra-hard X-ray and mid-IR (MIR) luminosities over five orders of magnitude ($41 < \log (L_{14-195}/{\rm erg}~{\rm s}^{-1})< 46$). Informed by previous measures of the intrinsic spectral energy distribution of AGN, we find FIR pure-AGN candidates whose FIR emission is thought to be AGN-dominated with low starformation activity. We demonstrate that the dust covering factor decreases with the bolometric AGN luminosity, confirming the luminosity-dependent unified scheme. We also show that the completeness of the WISE color-color cut in selecting Swift/BAT AGN increases strongly with 14-195 keV luminosity.

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arXiv2016

Near-infrared spectroscopy of nearby Seyfert galaxies: Is there evidence for the shock excitation in narrow-line regions?

One of the unsettled, important problems in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) is the major ionization mechanism of gas clouds in their narrow-line regions (NLRs). In order to investigate this issue, we present our $J$-band spectroscopic observations for a sample of 26 nearby Seyfert galaxies. In our study, we use the flux ratio of the following two forbidden emission lines, [Fe II]1.257$μ$m and [P II]1.188$μ$m because it is known that this ratio is sensitive to the ionization mechanism. We obtain the [Fe II]/[P II] flux ratio or its lower limit for 19 objects. In addition to our data, we compile this flux ratio (or its lower limit) of 23 nearby Seyfert galaxies from the literature. Based on the collected data, we find that three Seyfert galaxies show very large lower limits of [Fe II]/[P II] flux ratios ($\gtrsim$10); NGC 2782, 5005, and Mrk 463. It is thus suggested that the contribution of the fast shock in the gas excitation is significantly large for them. However, more than half of Seyfert galaxies in our sample show moderate [Fe II]/[P II] flux ratios ($\sim$2), that is consistent to the pure photoionization by power-law ionizing continuum emission. We also find that the [Fe II]/[P II] flux ratio shows no clear correlation with the radio loudness, suggesting that the radio jet is not the primary origin of shocks in NLRs of Seyfert galaxies.

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arXiv2016

Revisiting the Completeness and the Luminosity Function in High-Redshift Low-Luminosity Quasar Surveys

Recent studies have derived quasar luminosity functions (QLFs) at various redshifts. However, the faint side of the QLF at high redshifts is still too uncertain. An accurate estimate of the survey completeness is essential to derive an accurate QLF for use in studying the luminosity-dependent density evolution of the quasar population. Here we investigate how the luminosity dependence of quasar spectra (the Baldwin effect) and the attenuation model for the inter-galactic medium (IGM) affect the completeness estimates. For this purpose, we revisit the completeness of quasar surveys specifically at $z\sim4-5$, using the COSMOS images observed with Subaru/Suprime-Cam. As the result, we find that the completeness estimates are sensitive to the luminosity dependence of the quasar spectrum and difference in the IGM attenuation models. At $z\sim4$, the number density of quasars when we adopt the latest IGM model and take the luminosity dependence of spectra into account are $(3.49\pm1.62)\times10^{-7}$ Mpc$^{-3}$ mag$^{-1}$ for $-24.09<M_{1450}<-23.09$ and $(5.24\pm2.13)\times10^{-7}$ Mpc$^{-3}$ mag$^{-1}$ for $-23.09<M_{1450}<-22.09$, respectively, which are $\sim$$24$$\%$ lower than that estimated by the conventional method. On the other hand, at $z\sim5$, a $1σ$ confidence upper limit of the number density at $-24.5<M_{1450}<-22.5$ in our new estimates is $\sim$$43$$\%$ higher than that estimated previously. The results suggest that the luminosity dependence of the quasar spectrum and the IGM model are important for deriving accurate number density of high-$z$ quasars. Even taking these effects into account, the inferred luminosity-dependent density evolution of quasars is consistent with the AGN down-sizing evolutionary picture.

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arXiv2015

Rest-frame UV single-epoch black hole mass estimates of low-luminosity AGN at intermediate redshifts

The ability to accurately derive black hole (BH) masses at progressively higher redshifts and over a wide range of continuum luminosities has become indispensable in the era of large-area extragalactic spectroscopic surveys. In this paper we present an extension of existing comparisons between rest-frame UV and optical virial BH mass estimators to intermediate redshifts and luminosities comparable to the local H$β$ reverberation mapped active galactic nuclei (AGN). We focus on the MgII, CIV, and CIII] broad emission lines and compare them to both H$α$ and H$β$. We use newly acquired near-infrared spectra from the FMOS instrument on the Subaru telescope for 89 broad-lined AGN at redshifts between 0.3 and 3.5, complemented by data from the AGES survey. We employ two different prescriptions for measuring the emission line widths and compare the results. We confirm that MgII shows a tight correlation with H$α$ and H$β$, with a scatter of ~0.25 dex. The CIV and CIII] estimators, while showing larger scatter, are viable virial mass estimators after accounting for a trend with the UV-to-optical luminosity ratio. We find an intrinsic scatter of ~0.37 dex between Balmer and carbon virial estimators by combining our dataset with previous high redshift measurements. This updated comparison spans a total of 3 decades in BH mass. We calculate a virial factor for CIV/CIII] logf(CIV/CIII])=0.87 with an estimated systematic uncertainty of ~0.4 dex and find excellent agreement between the local reverberation mapped AGN sample and our high-z sample.

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arXiv2015

The sign of active galactic nucleus quenching in a merger remnant with radio jets

We investigate optical, infrared, and radio active galactic nucleus (AGN) signs in the merger remnant Arp 187, which hosts luminous jets launched in the order of $10^5$ yr ago but whose present-day AGN activity is still unknown. We find AGN signs from the optical BPT diagram and infrared [OIV]25.89 $μ$m line, originating from the narrow line regions of AGN. On the other hand, Spitzer/IRS show the host galaxy dominated spectra, suggesting that the thermal emission from the AGN torus is considerably small or already diminished. Combining the black hole mass, the upper limit of radio luminosity of the core, and the fundamental plane of the black hole enable us to estimate X-ray luminosity, which gives $<10^{40}$ erg s$^{-1}$. Those results suggest that the AGN activity of Arp 187 has already been quenched, but the narrow line region is still alive owing to the time delay of emission from the past AGN activity.

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