Silicate Emissions in Active Galaxies: From LINERs to QSOs

August 2005 • 2005ApJ...629L..21S

Authors • Sturm, E. • Schweitzer, M. • Lutz, D. • Contursi, A. • Genzel, R. • Lehnert, M. D. • Tacconi, L. J. • Veilleux, S. • Rupke, D. S. • Kim, D. -C. • Sternberg, A. • Maoz, D. • Lord, S. • Mazzarella, J. • Sanders, D. B.

Abstract • We report the first detection of ~10 and ~18 μm silicate dust emissions in a low-luminosity active galactic nucleus (AGN), obtained in Spitzer IRS 7-37 μm spectroscopy of the type 1 LINER galaxy NGC 3998. Silicate emissions in AGNs have only recently been detected in several quasars. Our detection counters suggestions that silicate emissions are present only in the most luminous AGNs. The silicate features may be signatures of a dusty ``obscuring torus'' viewed face-on as postulated for type 1 AGNs. However, the apparently cool (~200 K) dust is inconsistent with theoretical expectations of much hotter torus walls. Furthermore, not all type 1 objects are silicate emission sources. Alternatively, the silicate emission may originate in dust not directly associated with a torus. We find that the long-wavelength (>~20 μm) tail of the emission in NGC 3998 is significantly weaker than in the sample of bright QSOs recently presented by Hao et al. The 10 μm profile in our NGC 3998 spectrum is inconsistent with ``standard'' silicate ISM dust. This may indicate differences in the dust composition, grain size distribution, or degree of crystallization. The differences between NGC 3998, QSOs, and Galactic templates suggest that there are significant environmental variations.

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Joe Mazzarella

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