On the central abundances of Active Galactic Nuclei and Star-forming Galaxies

We examine the relation between oxygen abundances in the narrow-line regions (NLRs) of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) estimated from the optical emission lines through the strong-line method (the theoretical calibration of Storchi-Bergmann et al. 1998), via the direct Te-method, and the central inter...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Dors Jr., O. L., Cardaci, Mónica Viviana, Hägele, Guillermo Federico, Rodrigues, I., Grebel, E. K., Pilyugin, L. S., Freitas Lemes, P., Krabbe, A. C.
Formato: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2015
País:Argentina
Recursos:Universidad Nacional de La Plata
Repositorio:SEDICI (UNLP)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:sedici.unlp.edu.ar:10915/93847
Acesso em linha:http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/93847
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Astronomía
Física
Ciencias Naturales
Ciencias Exactas
Evolution of galaxies
Abundances
Formation of galaxies
Interstellar medium
Descrição
Resumo:We examine the relation between oxygen abundances in the narrow-line regions (NLRs) of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) estimated from the optical emission lines through the strong-line method (the theoretical calibration of Storchi-Bergmann et al. 1998), via the direct Te-method, and the central intersect abundances in the host galaxies determined from the radial abundance gradients. We found that the T<sub>e</sub>-method underestimates the oxygen abundances by up to ∼2 dex (with average value of ~0.8 dex) compared to the abundances derived through the strong-line method. This con- firms the existence of the so-called ?temperature problem? in AGNs. We also found that the abundances in the centres of galaxies obtained from their spectra trough the strong-line method are close to or slightly lower than the central intersect abun- dances estimated from the radial abundance gradient both in AGNs and Star-forming galaxies. The oxygen abundance of the NLR is usually lower than the maximum at- tainable abundance in galaxies (~2 times the solar value). This suggests that there is no extraordinary chemical enrichment of the NLRs of AGNs.