Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mason Ruby

Date

2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Physics

Committee Chair

Francisco Muller-Sanchez

Committee Member

Xiao Shen

Committee Member

Mohamed Laradji

Abstract

Dual active galactic nuclei (AGN), galaxy mergers in which both super massive black holes (SMBH) become active, offer a unique opportunity to probe the relationship between SMBHs and their host galaxies as well as the role of major mergers in triggering AGN activity. The confirmed dual AGN galaxy Markarian 266 (Mrk 266) has been studied extensively with multiwavelength imaging [1][2]. However, high spatial resolution integral field unit (IFU) spectroscopy of Mrk 266 provides an opportunity to probe the kinematics of both the merger event and AGN outflows. We present for the first time high spatial resolution IFU data for the southwestern nucleus of Mrk 266 taken with the Keck OSIRIS IFU spectrograph which utilizes adaptive optics to achieve a resolution of 0.23”. We report the detection of a compact, AGN- driven outflow of highly ionized gas with a timescale of 2.5 Myr which is less than the timescale of both the merger event and star formation, indicating the merger event has likely triggered the AGN activity in Mrk 266 SW. Simulations have previously shown that merger events can trigger AGN activity [3]; however, our results present the first direct evidence of the phenomenon.

Comments

Data is provided by the student

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to ProQuest.

Notes

Open Access

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