A possible binary AGN in Mrk 622?

Benítez, E.; Rodríguez-Espinosa, J. M.; Cruz-González, I.; González-Martín, O.; Negrete, C. A.; Ruschel-Dutra, D.; Gutiérrez, L.; Jiménez-Bailón, E.
Bibliographical reference

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, Volume 474, Issue 1, p.L56-L60

Advertised on:
2
2018
Number of authors
8
IAC number of authors
1
Citations
3
Refereed citations
3
Description
Mrk 622 is a Compton thick active galactic nuclei (AGN) and a double-peaked narrow emission line galaxy, thus a dual AGN candidate. In this work, new optical long-slit spectroscopic observations clearly show that this object is rather a triple peaked narrow emission line galaxy, with both blue and red shifted narrow emission lines, as well as a much narrower emission line centred at the host galaxy systemic velocity. The average velocity offset between the blue and red shifted components is ˜500 km s-1, which is producing the apparent double-peaked emission lines. These two components are in the loci of AGN in the Baldwin, Phillips & Terlevich diagrams and are found to be spatially separated by ˜76 pc. Analysis of the optical spatially resolved spectroscopic observations presented in this work favours that Mrk 622 is a system consisting of a composite AGN amidst a binary AGN candidate, likely the result of a recent merger. This notwithstanding, outflows from a starburst, or single AGN could also explain the triple nature of the emission lines.