Bibcode
Agís González, B.; Hutsemékers, D.; Acosta Pulido, J. A.; Ramos Almeida, C.
Bibliographical reference
Highlights on Spanish Astrophysics X, Proceedings of the XIII Scientific Meeting of the Spanish Astronomical Society held on July 16-20, 2018, in Salamanca, Spain, ISBN 978-84-09-09331-1. B. Montesinos, A. Asensio Ramos, F. Buitrago, R. Schödel, E. Villaver, S. Pérez-Hoyos, I. Ordóñez-Etxeberria (eds.) p. 199-200
Advertised on:
3
2019
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0
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0
Description
True Seyfert 2 candidates are those Seyferts galaxies whose optical
spectral do not show broad lines, nevertheless in the X-ray domain, they
exhibit some characteristic behavior of Seyferts 1 such as lack of X-ray
obscuration and/or short timescale variability. A true 2 candidate will
be confirmed as a true Seyfert 2 if the lack of its broad line region
(BLR) is not only observational but physical. These kind of objects are
thought to accrete at low Eddington rates, in agreement with theoretical
models that predict that the BLR disappears below a certain critical
value of accretion rate and/or luminosity. In the last decade, a
significant number of true Seyfert 2s with low accretion rates has been
claimed in the literature. However, some exceptions as GNS 069 or 2XMM
J1231+1106 show high accretion rates, which seem to contradict the
generally accepted explanation. A limit on the detection of hidden broad
line regions (HBLRs) must be established in order to make sure that BLRs
are not present intrinsically. Since true Seyfert 2 candidates are
selected by the absence of X-ray obscuration, the most plausible
explanation to cause the non-detection of a physically present HBLR
would be the absence of an adequate scattering medium. Polarimetry can
play a key role to answer this question. The presence of an efficient
scattering region would imply a high continuum of polarization. We
propose to assess what degrees of polarization are high enough to
indicate the presence of a scattering medium able to act as a mirror and
thus providing us with the indirect view of the HBLRs. We got new
imaging polarimetry data from ISIS@WHT of 10 true 2 candidates which had
not been checked in polarized light. If scattering regions are present,
undeniable degrees of polarization around 1?3% should be measured.
Comparing the measured continuum of polarization with simulations we
will be able to estimate a decidability limit on HBLRs. Specifically, we
will apply STOKES, a Monte Carlo radiative transfer code which can be
used to model, predict, fit and interpret the polarization of AGN.