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Lisa Kewley

Publications and source records attributed to Lisa Kewley.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Astro2020 Science White Paper: Spatially Resolved UV Nebular Diagnostics in Star-Forming Galaxies

Diagnosing the physical and chemical conditions within star-forming galaxies (SFGs) is of paramount importance to understanding key components of galaxy formation and evolution: star-formation, gas enrichment, outflows, and accretion. Well established optical emission-line diagnostics used to discern such properties (i.e., metal content, density, strength/shape of ionizing radiation) will be observationally inaccessible for the earliest galaxies, emphasizing the need for robust, reliable interstellar medium (ISM) diagnostics at ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths. Calibrating these UV diagnostics requires a comprehensive comparison of the UV and optical emission lines in nearby SFGs. Optical integral field unit (IFU) surveys have revealed the inhomogeneous nature of the ISM in SFGs, which leads to non-systematic biases in the interpretation of unresolved sources. Spatial variations are especially important to consider at UV wavelengths, where the strongest emission features originate from only the highest excitation regions of the nebula and are challenging to distinguish from competing high-ionization sources (e.g., shocks, AGN, etc.). Since surveys collecting large-scale optical integral field unit (IFU) spectroscopy are already underway, this white paper calls for an IFU or multi-object far-UV (FUV) spectroscopic instrument with high sensitivity, high spatial resolution, and large field of view (FoV). Given the impact of large-scale optical IFU surveys over the past decade, this white paper emphasizes the scientific need for a comparable foundation of spatially-resolved far-UV spectroscopy survey of nearby galaxies that will lay the foundation of diagnostics critical to the interpretation of the distant universe.

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High Resolution spatial analysis of a z $\sim$ 2 lensed galaxy using adaptive coadded source-plane reconstruction

We present spatially resolved analysis of a lensed galaxy, SDSS1958+5950 at $z = 2.225$, from the Cambridge Sloan Survey of Wide Arcs in the Sky (CASSOWARY). We use our new high resolution imaging data to construct a robust lens model for the galaxy group at $z = 0.214$. We employ the updated lens model to combine the Integral Field Spectrographic observations on two highly distorted images of the lensed target. We adopt a forward-modeling approach to deconvolve the effects of point spread function from the combined source-plane reconstruction. The approach is adapted to the lens model magnification and enables a resolution of $\sim$170 pc in the galaxy-source plane. We propose an ongoing merger as the origin of the lensed system on the basis of its source-plane morphology, kinematics and rest-frame emission line ratios. Using our novel technique of adaptive coadded source plane reconstruction, we are able to detect different components in the velocity gradient that were not seen in previous studies of this object, plausibly belonging to different components in the merging system.

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Starburst-AGN mixing: TYPHOON observations of NGC 1365, NGC 1068, and the effect of spatial resolution on the AGN fraction

We demonstrate a robust method of resolving the star-formation and AGN contributions to emission lines using two very well known AGN systems: NGC 1365, and NGC 1068, using the high spatial resolution data from the TYPHOON/PrISM survey. We expand the previous method of calculating the AGN fraction by using theoretical-based model grids rather than empirical points. The high spatial resolution of the TYPHOON/PrISM observations show evidence of both star formation and AGN activity occurring in the nuclei of the two galaxies. We rebin the data to the lower resolutions, typically found in other integral field spectroscopy surveys such as SAMI, MaNGA, and CALIFA. The results show that when rebinned from the native resolution of TYPHOON (< 200 pc/pixel) to 1 kpc/pixel, the effects include a roughly 3 kpc increase in the radius of measured AGN activity, and a factor of 2 to 7 increase in the detection of low surface brightness features such as shocks. All of this information is critical, because information on certain physical processes may be lost at varying resolutions. We make recommendations for analysing data at current IFU survey resolutions.

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The ionisation parameter of star-forming galaxies evolves with the specific star formation rate

We investigate the evolution of the ionisation parameter of star-forming galaxies using a high-redshift ($z\sim 1.5$) sample from the FMOS-COSMOS survey and matched low-redshift samples from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. By constructing samples of low-redshift galaxies for which the stellar mass ($\mathrm{M}_{*}$), star formation rate (SFR) and specific star formation rate (sSFR) are matched to the high-redshift sample we remove the effects of an evolution in these properties. We also account for the effect of metallicity by jointly constraining the metallicity and ionisation parameter of each sample. We find an evolution in the ionisation parameter for main-sequence, star-forming galaxies and show that this evolution is driven by the evolution of sSFR. By analysing the matched samples as well as a larger sample of $z<0.3$, star-forming galaxies we show that high ionisation parameters are directly linked to high sSFRs and are not simply the byproduct of an evolution in metallicity. Our results are physically consistent with the definition of the ionisation parameter, a measure of the hydrogen ionising photon flux relative to the number density of hydrogen atoms.

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Carbon Abundances in Starburst Galaxies of the Local Universe

The cosmological origin of carbon, the fourth most abundant element in the Universe, is not well known and matter of heavy debate. We investigate the behavior of C/O to O/H in order to constrain the production mechanism of carbon. We measured emission-line intensities in a spectral range from 1600 to 10000 Å on Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) long-slit spectra of 18 starburst galaxies in the local Universe. We determined chemical abundances through traditional nebular analysis and we used a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method to determine where our carbon and oxygen abundances lie in the parameter space. We conclude that our C and O abundance measurements are sensible. We analyzed the behavior of our sample in the [C/O] vs. [O/H] diagram with respect to other objects such as DLAs, neutral ISM measurements, and disk and halo stars, finding that each type of object seems to be located in a specific region of the diagram. Our sample shows a steeper C/O vs. O/H slope with respect to other samples, suggesting that massive stars contribute more to the production of C than N at higher metallicities, only for objects where massive stars are numerous; otherwise intermediate-mass stars dominate the C and N production.

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Probing the Physics of Narrow Line Regions in Active Galaxies IV: Full data release of The Siding Spring Southern Seyfert Spectroscopic Snapshot Survey (S7)

We present the second and final data release of the Siding Spring Southern Seyfert Spectroscopic Snapshot Survey (S7). Data are presented for 63 new galaxies not included in the first data release, and we provide 2D emission-line fitting products for the full S7 sample of 131 galaxies. The S7 uses the WiFeS instrument on the ANU 2.3m telescope to obtain spectra with a spectral resolution of R = 7000 in the red (540 - 700 nm) and R = 3000 in the blue (350 - 570 nm), over an integral field of 25x38 arcsec^2 with 1x1 arcsec^2 spatial pixels. The S7 contains both the largest sample of active galaxies and the highest spectral resolution of any comparable integral field survey to date. The emission-line fitting products include line fluxes, velocities and velocity dispersions across the WiFeS field of view, and an artificial neural network has been used to determine the optimal number of Gaussian kinematic components for emission-lines in each spaxel. Broad Balmer lines are subtracted from the spectra of nuclear spatial pixels in Seyfert 1 galaxies before fitting the narrow lines. We bin nuclear spectra and measure reddening-corrected nuclear fluxes of strong narrow lines for each galaxy. The nuclear spectra are classified on optical diagnostic diagrams, where the strength of the coronal line [FeVII]6087 is shown to be correlated with [OIII]/Hbeta. Maps revealing gas excitation and kinematics are included for the entire sample, and we provide notes on the newly observed objects.

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Spatially Resolved Patchy Lyman-$α$ Emission Within the Central Kiloparsec of a Strongly Lensed Quasar Host Galaxy at z = 2.8

We report the detection of extended Lyman-$α$ emission from the host galaxy of SDSS~J2222+2745, a strongly lensed quasar at $z = 2.8$. Spectroscopic follow-up clearly reveals extended Lyman-$α$ in emission between two images of the central active galactic nucleus (AGN). We reconstruct the lensed quasar host galaxy in the source plane by applying a strong lens model to HST imaging, and resolve spatial scales as small as $\sim$200 parsecs. In the source plane we recover the host galaxy morphology to within a few hundred parsecs of the central AGN, and map the extended Lyman-$α$ emission to its physical origin on one side of the host galaxy at radii $\sim$0.5-2 kpc from the central AGN. There are clear morphological differences between the Lyman-$α$ and rest-frame ultraviolet stellar continuum emission from the quasar host galaxy. Furthermore, the relative velocity profiles of quasar Lyman-$α$, host galaxy Lyman-$α$, and metal lines in outflowing gas reveal differences in the absorbing material affecting the AGN and host galaxy. These data indicate the presence of patchy local intervening gas in front of the central quasar and its host galaxy. This interpretation is consistent with the central luminous quasar being obscured across a substantial fraction of its surrounding solid angle, resulting in strong anisotropy in the exposure of the host galaxy to ionizing radiation from the AGN. This work demonstrates the power of strong lensing-assisted studies to probe spatial scales that are currently inaccessible by other means.

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ZFIRE: Using H$α$ equivalent widths to investigate the in situ initial mass function at z~2

We use the ZFIRE survey (http://zfire.swinburne.edu.au) to investigate the high mass slope of the initial mass function (IMF) for a mass-complete (log10(M$_*$/M$_\odot$)~9.3) sample of 102 star-forming galaxies at z~2 using their H$α$ equivalent widths (H$α$-EW) and rest-frame optical colours. We compare dust-corrected H$α$-EW distributions with predictions of star-formation histories (SFH) from PEGASE.2 and Starburst99 synthetic stellar population models. We find an excess of high H$α$-EW galaxies that are up to 0.3--0.5 dex above the model-predicted Salpeter IMF locus and the H$α$-EW distribution is much broader (10--500 Å) than can easily be explained by a simple monotonic SFH with a standard Salpeter-slope IMF. Though this discrepancy is somewhat alleviated when it is assumed that there is no relative attenuation difference between stars and nebular lines, the result is robust against observational biases, and no single IMF (i.e. non-Salpeter slope) can reproduce the data. We show using both spectral stacking and Monte Carlo simulations that starbursts cannot explain the EW distribution. We investigate other physical mechanisms including models with variations in stellar rotation, binary star evolution, metallicity, and the IMF upper-mass cutoff. IMF variations and/or highly rotating extreme metal poor stars (Z~0.1Z$_\odot$) with binary interactions are the most plausible explanations for our data. If the IMF varies, then the highest H$α$-EWs would require very shallow slopes ($Γ$>-1.0) with no one slope able to reproduce the data. Thus, the IMF would have to vary stochastically. We conclude that the stellar populations at z~2 show distinct differences from local populations and there is no simple physical model to explain the large variation in H$α$-EWs at z~2.

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Mass-Metallicity Relation for Local Analogs of High-Redshift galaxies: Implications for the Evolution of the Mass-Metallicity Relations

We revisit the evolution of the mass-metallicity relation of low- and high-redshift galaxies by using a sample of local analogs of high-redshift galaxies. These analogs share the same location of the UV-selected star-forming galaxies at $z\sim2$ on the [OIII]/H$β$ versus [NII]/H$α$ nebular emission-line diagnostic (or BPT) diagram. Their physical properties closely resemble those in $z\sim2$ UV-selected star-forming galaxies being characterized in particular by high ionization parameters ($\log q\approx7.9$) and high electron densities ($n_e\approx100~\rm{cm}^{-3}$). With the full set of well-detected rest-frame optical diagnostic lines, we measure the gas-phase oxygen abundance in the SDSS galaxies and these local analogs using the empirical relations and the photoionization models. We find that the metallicity difference between the SDSS galaxies and our local analogs in the $8.5<log(M_*/M_{\odot})<9.0$ stellar mass bin varies from -0.09 to 0.39 dex, depending on strong-line metallicity measurement methods. Due to this discrepancy the evolution of mass-metallicity should be used to compare with the cosmological simulations with caution. We use the [SII]/H$α$ and [OI]/H$α$ BPT diagram to reduce the potential AGN and shock contamination in our local analogs. We find that the AGN/shock influences are negligible on the metallicity estimation.

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The COSMOS [OII] Survey: Evolution of Electron Density with Star Formation Rate

Star-forming galaxies at $z > 1$ exhibit significantly different properties to local galaxies of equivalent stellar mass. Not only are high-redshift star-forming galaxies characterized by higher star formation rates and gas fractions than their local counterparts, they also appear to host star-forming regions with significantly different physical conditions, including greater electron densities. To understand what physical mechanisms are responsible for the observed evolution of star-forming conditions we have assembled the largest sample of star-forming galaxies at $z\sim 1.5$ with emission-line measurements of the $\mathrm{[OII]} λλ3726,3729$ doublet. By comparing our $z\sim 1.5$ sample to local galaxy samples with equivalent distributions of stellar mass, star formation rate and specific star formation rate we investigate the proposed evolution in electron density and its dependence on global properties. We measure an average electron density of $114_{-27}^{+28} \, \mathrm {cm}^{-3} $ for our $z\sim 1.5$ sample, a factor of five greater than the typical electron density of local star-forming galaxies. However, we find no offset between the typical electron densities of local and high-redshift galaxies with equivalent star-formation rates. Our work indicates that the average electron density of a sample is highly sensitive to the star formation rates, implying that the previously observed evolution is mainly the result of selection effects.

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ZFIRE: A KECK/MOSFIRE Spectroscopic Survey of Galaxies in Rich Environments at z~2

We present an overview and the first data release of ZFIRE, a spectroscopic redshift survey of star-forming galaxies that utilizes the MOSFIRE instrument on Keck-I to study galaxy properties in rich environments at $1.5<z<2.5$. ZFIRE measures accurate spectroscopic redshifts and basic galaxy properties derived from multiple emission lines. The galaxies are selected from a stellar mass limited sample based on deep near infra-red imaging ($\mathrm{K_{AB}<25}$) and precise photometric redshifts from the ZFOURGE and UKIDSS surveys as well as grism redshifts from 3DHST. Between 2013--2015 ZFIRE has observed the COSMOS and UDS legacy fields over 13 nights and has obtained 211 galaxy redshifts over $1.57<z<2.66$ from a combination of nebular emission lines (such as \Halpha, \NII, \Hbeta, \OII, \OIII, \SII) observed at 1--2\micron. Based on our medium-band NIR photometry, we are able to spectrophotometrically flux calibrate our spectra to \around10\% accuracy. ZFIRE reaches $5σ$ emission line flux limits of \around$\mathrm{3\times10^{-18}~erg/s/cm^2}$ with a resolving power of $R=3500$ and reaches masses down to \around10$^{9}$\msol. We confirm that the primary input survey, ZFOURGE, has produced photometric redshifts for star-forming galaxies (including highly attenuated ones) accurate to $Δz/(1+z\mathrm{_{spec})}=0.015$ with $0.7\%$ outliers. We measure a slight redshift bias of $<0.001$, and we note that the redshift bias tends to be larger at higher masses. We also examine the role of redshift on the derivation of rest-frame colours and stellar population parameters from SED fitting techniques. The ZFIRE survey extends spectroscopically-confirmed $z\sim 2$ samples across a richer range of environments, here we make available the first public release of the data for use by the community.\footnote{\url{http://zfire.swinburne.edu.au}}

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The VIRUS-P Exploration of Nearby Galaxies (VENGA): Spatially Resolved Gas-Phase Metallicity Distributions in Barred and Unbarred Spirals

We present a study of the excitation conditions and metallicity of ionized gas (Z_gas) in eight nearby barred and unbarred spiral galaxies from the VIRUS-P Exploration of Nearby Galaxies (VENGA) survey, which provides high spatial sampling and resolution (median ~ 387 pc), large coverage from the bulge to outer disc, broad wavelength range (3600-6800 Ang.), and medium spectral resolution (~ 120 km s^-1 at 5000 Ang.). Our results are: (1) We present high resolution gas excitation maps to differentiate between regions with excitation typical of Seyfert, LINER, or recent star formation. We find LINER-type excitation at large distances (3-10 kpc) from the centre, and associate this excitation with diffuse ionized gas (DIG). (2) After excluding spaxels dominated by Seyfert, LINER, or DIG, we produce maps with the best spatial resolution and sampling to date of the ionization parameter q, star formation rate, and Z_gas using common strong line diagnostics. We find that isolated barred and unbarred spirals exhibit similarly shallow Z_gas profiles from the inner kpc out to large radii (7-10 kpc or 0.5-1.0 R_25). This implies that if profiles had steeper gradients at earlier epochs, then the present-day bar is not the primary driver flattening gradients over time. This result contradicts earlier claims, but agrees with recent IFU studies. (3) The Z_gas gradients in our z ~ 0 massive spirals are markedly shallower, by ~ 0.2 dex kpc^-1, than published gradients for lensed lower mass galaxies at z ~ 1.5-2.0. Cosmologically-motivated hydrodynamical simulations best match this inferred evolution, but the match is sensitive to adopted stellar feedback prescriptions.

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Using an Artificial Neural Network to Classify Multi-component Emission Line Fits

We present The Machine, an artificial neural network (ANN) capable of differentiating between the numbers of Gaussian components needed to describe the emission lines of Integral Field Spectroscopic (IFS) observations. Here we show the preliminary results of the S7 first data release (Siding Spring Southern Seyfert Spectro- scopic Snapshot Survey, Dopita et al. 2015) and SAMI Galaxy Survey (Sydney-AAO Multi-object Integral Field Unit, Croom et al. 2012) to classify whether the emission lines in each spatial pixel are composed of 1, 2, or 3 different Gaussian components. Previously this classification has been done by individual people, taking an hour per galaxy. This time investment is no longer feasible with the large spectroscopic surveys coming online.

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Monte Carlo Method for Calculating Oxygen Abundances and Their Uncertainties from Strong-Line Flux Measurements

We present the open-source Python code pyMCZ that determines oxygen abundance and its distribution from strong emission lines in the standard metallicity calibrators, based on the original IDL code of Kewley & Dopita (2002) with updates from Kewley & Ellison (2008), and expanded to include more recently developed calibrators. The standard strong-line diagnostics have been used to estimate the oxygen abundance in the interstellar medium through various emission line ratios in many areas of astrophysics, including galaxy evolution and supernova host galaxy studies. We introduce a Python implementation of these methods that, through Monte Carlo sampling, better characterizes the statistical oxygen abundance confidence region including the effect due to the propagation of observational uncertainties. These uncertainties are likely to dominate the error budget in the case of distant galaxies, hosts of cosmic explosions. Given line flux measurements and their uncertainties, our code produces synthetic distributions for the oxygen abundance in up to 15 metallicity calibrators simultaneously, as well as for E(B-V), and estimates their median values and their 68% confidence regions. We test our code on emission line measurements from a sample of nearby supernova host galaxies (z < 0.15) and compare our metallicity results with those from previous methods. Our metallicity estimates are consistent with previous methods but yield smaller statistical uncertainties. Systematic uncertainties are not taken into account. We offer visualization tools to assess the spread of the oxygen abundance in the different calibrators, as well as the shape of the estimated oxygen abundance distribution in each calibrator, and develop robust metrics for determining the appropriate Monte Carlo sample size. The code is open access and open source and can be found at https://github.com/nyusngroup/pyMCZ (Abridged)

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Local Analogs for High-redshift Galaxies: Resembling the Physical Conditions of the Interstellar Medium in High-redshift Galaxies

We present a sample of local analogs for high-redshift galaxies selected in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The physical conditions of the interstellar medium (ISM) in these local analogs resemble those in high-redshift galaxies. These galaxies are selected based on their positions in the [OIII]/H$β$ versus [NII]/H$α$ nebular emission-line diagnostic diagram. We show that these local analogs share similar physical properties with high-redshift galaxies, including high specific star formation rates (sSFRs), flat UV continuums and compact galaxy sizes. In particular, the ionization parameters and electron densities in these analogs are comparable to those in $z\simeq2-3$ galaxies, but higher than those in normal SDSS galaxies by $\simeq$0.6~dex and $\simeq$0.9~dex, respectively. The mass-metallicity relation (MZR) in these local analogs shows $-0.2$~dex offset from that in SDSS star-forming galaxies at the low mass end, which is consistent with the MZR of the $z\sim2-3$ galaxies. We compare the local analogs in this study with those in other studies, including Lyman break analogs (LBA) and green pea (GP) galaxies. The analogs in this study share a similar star formation surface density with LBAs, but the ionization parameters and electron densities in our analogs are higher than those in LBAs by factors of 1.5 and 3, respectively. The analogs in this study have comparable ionization parameter and electron density to the GP galaxies, but our method can select galaxies in a wider redshift range. We find the high sSFR and SFR surface density can increase the electron density and ionization parameters, but still cannot fully explain the difference in ISM condition between nearby galaxies and the local analogs/high-redshift galaxies.

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Resolving Ionisation and Metallicity on Parsec Scales Across Mrk 71 with HST-WFC3

Blue Compact Dwarf (BCD) Galaxies in the nearby Universe provide a means for studying feedback mechanisms and star-formation processes in low-metallicity environments in great detail. Due to their vicinity, these local analogues to young galaxies are well suited for high-resolution studies that would be unfeasible for primordial galaxies in the high-redshift universe. Here we present HST-WFC3 observations of one such BCD, Mrk 71, one of the most powerful local starbursts known, in the light of [O II], He II, Hb, [O III], Ha, and [S II]. At D=3.44 Mpc, this extensive suite of emission line images enables us to explore the chemical and physical conditions of Mrk 71 on ~2 pc scales. Using these high spatial-resolution observations, we use emission line diagnostics to distinguish ionisation mechanisms on a pixel-by-pixel basis and show that despite the previously reported hypersonic gas and super-bubble blow out, the gas in Mrk 71 is photoionised, with no sign of shock-excited emission. Using strong-line metallicity diagnostics, we present the first 'metallicity image' of a galaxy, revealing chemically inhomogeneity on scales of <50 pc. We additionally demonstrate that while chemical structure can be lost at large spatial scales, metallicity-diagnostics can break down on spatial scales smaller than a HII region. HeII emission line images are used to identify up to six Wolf-Rayet stars in Mrk 71, three of which lie on the edge of blow-out region. This study not only demonstrates the benefits of high-resolution spatially-resolved observations in assessing the effects of feedback mechanisms, but also the limitations of fine spatial scales when employing emission-line diagnostics. Both aspects are especially relevant as we enter the era of extremely large telescopes, when observing structure on ~10 pc scales will no longer be limited to the local universe.

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The SAMI Galaxy Survey: Can we trust aperture corrections to predict star formation?

In the low redshift Universe (z<0.3), our view of galaxy evolution is primarily based on fibre optic spectroscopy surveys. Elaborate methods have been developed to address aperture effects when fixed aperture sizes only probe the inner regions for galaxies of ever decreasing redshift or increasing physical size. These aperture corrections rely on assumptions about the physical properties of galaxies. The adequacy of these aperture corrections can be tested with integral-field spectroscopic data. We use integral-field spectra drawn from 1212 galaxies observed as part of the SAMI Galaxy Survey to investigate the validity of two aperture correction methods that attempt to estimate a galaxy's total instantaneous star formation rate. We show that biases arise when assuming that instantaneous star formation is traced by broadband imaging, and when the aperture correction is built only from spectra of the nuclear region of galaxies. These biases may be significant depending on the selection criteria of a survey sample. Understanding the sensitivities of these aperture corrections is essential for correct handling of systematic errors in galaxy evolution studies.

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Probing the Physics of Narrow Line Regions in Active Galaxies III: Accretion and Cocoon Shocks in the LINER NGC1052

We present Wide Field Spectrograph (WiFeS) integral field spectroscopy and HST FOS spectroscopy for the LINER galaxy NGC 1052. We infer the presence of a turbulent accretion flow forming a small-scale accretion disk. We find a large-scale outflow and ionisation cone along the minor axis of the galaxy. Part of this outflow region is photoionised by the AGN, and shares properties with the ENLR of Seyfert galaxies, but the inner ($R \lesssim 1.0$~arcsec) accretion disk and the region around the radio jet appear shock excited. The emission line properties can be modelled by a "double shock" model in which the accretion flow first passes through an accretion shock in the presence of a hard X-ray radiation, and the accretion disk is then processed through a cocoon shock driven by the overpressure of the radio jets. This model explains the observation of two distinct densities ($\sim10^4$ and $\sim10^6$ cm$^{-3}$), and provides a good fit to the observed emission line spectrum. We derive estimates for the velocities of the two shock components and their mixing fractions, the black hole mass, the accretion rate needed to sustain the LINER emission and derive an estimate for the jet power. Our emission line model is remarkably robust against variation of input parameters, and so offers a generic explanation for the excitation of LINER galaxies, including those of spiral type such as NGC 3031 (M81).

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