VLA FRAMEx. II. Radio Spectra of Nearby Active Galactic Nuclei at Subarcsecond Resolution

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Sargent, Andrew J., van der Horst, Alexander J., Johnson, Megan C., Fischer, Travis C., Secrest, Nathan J., Cigan, Phil J., Shuvo, Onic I., Smith, Krista L.
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
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author Sargent, Andrew J.
van der Horst, Alexander J.
Johnson, Megan C.
Fischer, Travis C.
Secrest, Nathan J.
Cigan, Phil J.
Shuvo, Onic I.
Smith, Krista L.
author_facet Sargent, Andrew J.
van der Horst, Alexander J.
Johnson, Megan C.
Fischer, Travis C.
Secrest, Nathan J.
Cigan, Phil J.
Shuvo, Onic I.
Smith, Krista L.
contents We present $4-12$ GHz in-band spectral energy distributions with accompanying 6 GHz and 10 GHz imaging results for a volume-complete sample ($<40$ Mpc) of hard X-ray selected active galactic nuclei (AGNs) observed with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) in its A-array configuration. Despite expectations, only 12 out of 25 of these targets have been detected by the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) at milliarcsecond resolution in our previous studies, and we aim to understand the nature of why the circumnuclear radio emission resolves away at the subparsec spatial scales. We find that the sources not detected by the VLBA are also the faintest sources observed with the VLA. We explore the spectral structure derived from the nuclear emission and measure a mean spectral index of $\langleα\rangle=-0.69$ with a scatter of $σ_α=0.18$ for the sources not detected by the VLBA, indicative of optically thin synchrotron emission. The 12 sources detected by the VLBA primarily have flat ($-0.5\leqα\leq0.0$) or inverted ($α>0$) spectral indices. Nine of the sources have statistically significant curvature, with only one that was not detected by the VLBA. In NGC~3079, we model an approximately flat spectrum for the excess emission observed by the VLA that is likely produced entirely beyond parsec spatial scales.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_20026
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle VLA FRAMEx. II. Radio Spectra of Nearby Active Galactic Nuclei at Subarcsecond Resolution
Sargent, Andrew J.
van der Horst, Alexander J.
Johnson, Megan C.
Fischer, Travis C.
Secrest, Nathan J.
Cigan, Phil J.
Shuvo, Onic I.
Smith, Krista L.
Astrophysics of Galaxies
We present $4-12$ GHz in-band spectral energy distributions with accompanying 6 GHz and 10 GHz imaging results for a volume-complete sample ($<40$ Mpc) of hard X-ray selected active galactic nuclei (AGNs) observed with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) in its A-array configuration. Despite expectations, only 12 out of 25 of these targets have been detected by the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) at milliarcsecond resolution in our previous studies, and we aim to understand the nature of why the circumnuclear radio emission resolves away at the subparsec spatial scales. We find that the sources not detected by the VLBA are also the faintest sources observed with the VLA. We explore the spectral structure derived from the nuclear emission and measure a mean spectral index of $\langleα\rangle=-0.69$ with a scatter of $σ_α=0.18$ for the sources not detected by the VLBA, indicative of optically thin synchrotron emission. The 12 sources detected by the VLBA primarily have flat ($-0.5\leqα\leq0.0$) or inverted ($α>0$) spectral indices. Nine of the sources have statistically significant curvature, with only one that was not detected by the VLBA. In NGC~3079, we model an approximately flat spectrum for the excess emission observed by the VLA that is likely produced entirely beyond parsec spatial scales.
title VLA FRAMEx. II. Radio Spectra of Nearby Active Galactic Nuclei at Subarcsecond Resolution
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.20026