arXiv subjects

Sravani Vaddi

Publications and source records attributed to Sravani Vaddi.

23 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2018

A Curved 150 Parsec Long Jet in the Double-Peaked Emission-Line AGN KISSR 434

Double-peaked emission lines in the narrow- and/or broad-line spectra of AGN have been suggested to arise due to disky broad/narrow line regions, jet-medium interaction, or the presence of binary supermassive black holes. We present the results from 1.5 and 4.9 GHz phase-referenced Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations of the Seyfert type 2 galaxy KISSR 434, which exhibits double-peaked emission lines in its optical spectrum. We detect a steep-spectrum ($α<-1$), curved and long (~150 parsec) jet in the VLBI images of KISSR 434. The jet curvature could be a result of precession rather than ram-pressure bending from a rotating ISM. Precession could in turn arise due to a warped accretion disk or the presence of a binary black hole with a separation of 0.015 parsec, not accessible to present day telescopes. An examination of the emission line ratios with the MAPPINGS III code reveals that AGN photoionization is likely to be responsible for the observed line ratios and not shock-ionization due to the jet. A light (with jet-to-ambient medium density ratio of $η\sim0.01$) and fast (with speed $v_j\gtrsim0.75c$) precessing jet in KISSR 434 may have stirred up the emission-line gas clouds to produce the observed splits in the narrow line peaks but is not powerful enough to shock-ionise the gas.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2016

Tracking galaxy evolution through low frequency radio continuum observations using SKA and Citizen-science Research using Multi-wavelength data

We present a review on galaxy black hole co-evolution through merger, star formation and AGN-jet feedback. We highlight results on transitional galaxies (e.g. NGC1482, NGC6764, NGC3801, Speca, RAD-18 etc.) which has data from Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope (GMRT) and other sub-mm, IR, optical, UV and X-ray telescopes. The `smoking gun' relic-evidences of past AGN-jet feedback which is believed to have quenched star formation in transitional galaxies are still missing. Relic radio lobes, as old as a few hundred Myr, can be best detected at low radio frequencies with the GMRT, LOFAR and in future SKA. However, similar relic evidences of quasar activities, known as `Hanny's Voorwerp' discovered by Galaxy Zoo in optical data, are only around a few tens of thousand years old. More discoveries are needed to match these time-scales with time since the decline of star formation in transitional galaxies. Such faint fuzzy relic emissions in optical and angular-scale sensitive radio interferometric images can be discovered most efficiently by citizen-scientists but with a formal training. We describe RAD@home, the only Indian citizen-science research project in astronomy which takes such a modified approach. We present interesting objects, discovered from the TIFR GMRT Sky Survey (TGSS) by 69 trained citizen-scientists or e-astronomers, like relic radio lobes, episodic radio galaxies, jet-galaxy interaction, bent radio galaxy in filament etc.. This model can provide an equal opportunity of academic-growth to people even in the under-developed regions where we always need to establish our optical and radio telescopes. This can expand the research-activity of city-based research-institutes beyond their four brick walls, and alleviate various socio-economic and geo-political constraints on growth of citizens located in remote areas. #RADatHomeIndia #ABCDresearch

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2016

Constraints on Feedback in the local Universe: The relation between star formation and AGN activity in early type galaxies

We address the relation between star formation and AGN activity in a sample of 231 nearby ($0.0002<z<0.0358$) early type galaxies by carrying out a multi-wavelength study using archival observations in the UV, IR and radio. Our results indicate that early type galaxies in the current epoch are rarely powerful AGNs, with $P<10^{22}\,WHz^{-1}$ for a majority of the galaxies. Only massive galaxies are capable of hosting powerful radio sources while less massive galaxies are hosts to lower radio power sources. Evidence of ongoing star formation is seen in approximately 7% of the sample. The SFR of these galaxies is less than 0.1 $M_{\odot}yr^{-1}$. They also tend to be radio faint ($P<10^{22}\,WHz^{-1}$). There is a nearly equal fraction of star forming galaxies in radio faint ($P<10^{22}\,WHz^{-1}$) and radio bright galaxies ($P\geq10^{22}\,WHz^{-1}$) suggesting that both star formation and radio mode feedback are constrained to be very low in our sample. We notice that our galaxy sample and the Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs) follow similar trends in radio power versus SFR. This may be produced if both radio power and SFR are related to stellar mass.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2014

New results on the exotic galaxy `Speca' and discovering many more Specas with RAD@home network

We present the first report on an innovative new project named "RAD@home", a citizen-science research collaboratory built on free web-services like Facebook, Google, Skype, NASA Skyview, NED, TGSS etc.. This is the first of its kind in India, a zero-funded, zero-infrastructure, human-resource network to educate and directly involve in research, hundreds of science-educated under-graduate population of India, irrespective of their official employment and home-location with in the country. Professional international collaborators are involved in follow up observation and publication of the objects discovered by the collaboratory. We present here ten newly found candidate episodic radio galaxies, already proposed to GMRT, and ten more interesting cases which includes, bent-lobe radio galaxies located in new Mpc-scale filaments, likely tracing cosmological cluster accretion from the cosmic web. Two new Speca-like rare spiral-host large radio galaxies have also been been reported here. Early analyses from our follow up observations with the Subaru and XMM-Newton telescopes have revealed that Speca is likely a new entry to the cluster and is a fast rotating, extremely massive, star forming disk galaxy. Speca-like massive galaxies with giant radio lobes, are possibly remnants of luminous quasars in the early Universe or of first supermassive black holes with in first masssve galaxies. As discoveries of Speca-like galaxies did not require new data from big telescopes, but free archival radio-optical data, these early results demonstrate the discovery potential of RAD@home and how it can help resource-rich professionals, as well as demonstrate a model of academic-growth for resource-poor people in the underdeveloped regions via Internet.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2012

On the Ionization of Luminous WMAP Sources in the Galaxy : Constraints from He Recombination Line Observations with the GBT

The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) free-free foreground emission map is used to identify diffuse ionized regions (DIR) in the Galaxy (Rahman & Murray 2010). It has been found that the 18 most luminous WMAP sources produce more than half of the total ionizing luminosity of the Galaxy. We observed radio recombination lines (RRLs) toward the luminous WMAP source G49.75-0.45 with the Green Bank Telescope near 1.4 GHz. Hydrogen RRL is detected toward the source but no helium line is detected, implying that n_He+/n_H+ < 0.024. This limit puts severe constraint on the ionizing spectrum. The total ionizing luminosity of G49 (3.05 x 10^51 s^-1) is ~ 2.8 times the luminosity of all radio HII regions within this DIR and this is generally the case for other WMAP sources. Murray & Rahman (2010) propose that the additional ionization is due to massive clusters (~ 7.5 x10^3 Msun for G49) embedded in the WMAP sources. Such clusters should produce enough photons with energy \geq 24.6 eV to fully ionize helium in the DIR. Our observations rule out a simple model with G49 ionized by a massive cluster. We also considered 'leaky' HII region models for the ionization of the DIR, suggested by Lockman and Anantharamaiah, but these models also cannot explain our observations. We estimate that the helium ionizing photons need to be attenuated by > ~10 times to explain the observations. If selective absorption of He- ionizing photons by dust is causing this additional attenuation, then the ratio of dust absorption cross sections for He- and H- ionizing photons should be > ~6.

astro-ph.GA↗