Our Spotlight Series highlights recent advances in AGN science, with a strong emphasis on participation from early-career researchers, and includes plenty of time for community discussion following the presentations. 

AGN-driven metallicity enrichment in the ISM of Mrk 573

Speaker

Dr. Dominika Krol (Center for Astrophysics)

Abstract

One of the crucial parameters characterizing the interstellar medium (ISM) is its metallicity, which is associated with the chemical evolution of a galaxy’s stellar populations. However, stellar feedback is only part of the story. The extent to which active galactic nuclei (AGN) influence the chemical evolution of their hosts remains an open question.

The Past, Present, and Future of a Precessing Jet-driven Outflow in a Late-type Disk Galaxy

Speaker

Dr. Justin Kader (Univ. of California Irvine) 

Abstract

In my talk, I will present spatially resolved metallicity (log(O/H)) maps for Mrk 573, a Compton-thick AGN. By applying theoretical metallicity diagnostics tailored to AGN-driven emission to Hubble Space Telescope (HST) data, we probe the metallicity out to ~1 kpc scales, with tens-of-parsecs resolution across the ionization bicone. We find significant metallicity enhancement in AGN-dominated regions, with oxygen abundances reaching up to ~3xSolar, strongly correlated with the Seyfert/LINER Index, defined as the distance of a point from the Seyfert/LINER division line in the S-BPT diagram. Metallicity enrichment traces trace the VLA 6~cm jet/radio lobe emission. This, together with the lack of evidence for star formation in the bi-cone region, suggests that the enrichment originates from metals transported from the nuclear AGN region by winds, outflows, or jets. I will discuss the possible sources and implications of this metal enrichment.

Seminar Connection

Zoom Registration, you will receive connection details by email after registration: 

https://zoom.us/j/97689874465?pwd=XZNUqr19oopa1LfD7hgln1aQ2vbnT2.1