ReveaLLAGN 3: Revealing the Infrared Spectral Energy Distributions of Low Luminosity AGN

Abstract The spectral energy distributions of active galactic nuclei (AGN) provide valuable information on the emission mechanisms taking place in their inner regions. Here we use the James Webb Space Telescope to study the near and mid-infrared spectral energy distributions of seven nearby low-luminosity active galaxy nuclei from 1.7 to 24 μm. We cleanly separate the AGN spectrum by performing spatial fits of the two-dimensional images across all wavelengths. We then compare these clean unresolved spectra to aperture-based spectra and show that they effectively remove galaxy contamination. Comparing our infrared measurements to X-ray emission, we find that low-luminosity AGN have enhanced near-infrared emission relative to more luminous AGN, a trend that correlates with radio-loudness, while their mid-infrared-to-X-ray ratios are comparable. A majority of our targets show strong compact silicate emission suggesting the presence of warm dust on parsec scales in these systems. We also quantify the near- and mid-infrared power-law slopes and colors of low-luminosity AGN. In the near-infrared we find AGN of all luminosities have similar spectral slopes and colors, however in the mid-infrared, we find low-luminosity AGN typically have steeper slopes and redder colors than more luminous AGN. Both the strong silicate emission and steep mid-infrared slopes disagree with existing models for low-luminosity AGN spectral energy distributions.

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Publication Details

Journal
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Published
2026-10-30
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stag2076
Primary Topic
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

ReveaLLAGN 3: Revealing the Infrared Spectral Energy Distributions of Low Luminosity AGN

Jonelle L. Walsh, Sera Markoff, Antoine Dumont, Jenny E. Greene et al.
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
article

ReveaLLAGN 3: Revealing the Infrared Spectral Energy Distributions of Low Luminosity AGN

Jonelle L. Walsh, Sera Markoff, Antoine Dumont, Jenny E. Greene, Michael Eracleous, Kameron Goold, Glenn van de Ven, Luis C. Ho, Richard M. Plotkin, Nischal Acharya, Andy D. Goulding, J. A. Fernández-Ontiveros, Mallory Molina, Anil C. Seth, Shobita Satyapal, Anja Feldmeier-Krause, Elena Gallo, David Ohlson, Torsten Böker, Almudena Prieto, Ruby Duncan
article en

Abstract

Abstract The spectral energy distributions of active galactic nuclei (AGN) provide valuable information on the emission mechanisms taking place in their inner regions. Here we use the James Webb Space Telescope to study the near and mid-infrared spectral energy distributions of seven nearby low-luminosity active galaxy nuclei from 1.7 to 24 μm. We cleanly separate the AGN spectrum by performing spatial fits of the two-dimensional images across all wavelengths. We then compare these clean unresolved spectra to aperture-based spectra and show that they effectively remove galaxy contamination. Comparing our infrared measurements to X-ray emission, we find that low-luminosity AGN have enhanced near-infrared emission relative to more luminous AGN, a trend that correlates with radio-loudness, while their mid-infrared-to-X-ray ratios are comparable. A majority of our targets show strong compact silicate emission suggesting the presence of warm dust on parsec scales in these systems. We also quantify the near- and mid-infrared power-law slopes and colors of low-luminosity AGN. In the near-infrared we find AGN of all luminosities have similar spectral slopes and colors, however in the mid-infrared, we find low-luminosity AGN typically have steeper slopes and redder colors than more luminous AGN. Both the strong silicate emission and steep mid-infrared slopes disagree with existing models for low-luminosity AGN spectral energy distributions.

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Space Telescope Science Institute (US), University of Vienna (AT), Pennsylvania State University (US), University of Nevada, Las Vegas (US), University of Nevada, Reno (US), Universidad de La Laguna (ES), George Mason University (US), Vanderbilt University (US), Princeton University (US), Peking University (CN), University of Utah (US), University of Cambridge (GB), University of Michigan (US), Mitchell Institute (US), European Space Agency (FR), Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (DE), Centro de Estudios de Física del Cosmos de Aragón (ES), Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (ES), Astronomical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SK), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (DE), University of Amsterdam (NL), Texas A&M University (US)
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, European Commission, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Austrian Science Fund, European Regional Development Fund, Agencia Estatal de Investigación, NextGenerationEU
Openalex Percentile: Top 14%
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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