Spectral synthesis of the nuclear regions of Seyfert 2 and radio galaxies

We present the results of an optical spectral synthesis analysis for the nuclei of 20 Seyfert 2 and four radio galaxies, using a base of stellar population templates of different ages and metallicities and a power-law continuum. Compared with the stellar population of elliptical galaxies, we find th...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Schmitt, Henrique Roberto, Storchi-Bergmann, Thaisa, Fernandes Junior, Roberto Cid
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:1999
País:Brasil
Institución:Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS)
Repositorio:Repositório Institucional da UFRGS
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:www.lume.ufrgs.br:10183/88774
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10183/88774
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Nucleo galatico
Radiogalaxias
Galaxias seyfert
Espectros astronômicos
Galaxies: active
Galaxies: nuclei
Galaxies: seyfert
Galaxies: stellar content
Descripción
Sumario:We present the results of an optical spectral synthesis analysis for the nuclei of 20 Seyfert 2 and four radio galaxies, using a base of stellar population templates of different ages and metallicities and a power-law continuum. Compared with the stellar population of elliptical galaxies, we find that Seyfert 2s usually have a smaller contribution from old metal-rich stars (age 10 Gyr, Z ≥ Z̛), and a larger contribution from stars with ages of 100 Myr. We also find that the contributions from stars with ages ≤ 10 Myr and from a power-law continuum are small, rarely exceeding 5 per cent. These results show that the general assumption of elliptical galaxies as stellar population templates for these objects is incorrect, also implying that the excess blue continuum frequently found in their nuclear spectra is probably due to this template mismatch.We find a considerable contribution from 100-Myr-old stars (~~5 per cent), which can be interpreted from the point of view of models where the fuelling of the AGN is carried out by interactions/mergers.