Stellar population in LLAGN

Abstract

LLAGN that include low-ionization nuclear emission-line regions (LINERs), and transition-type objects (TOs) represent the most common type of nuclear activity. Here, a study of the central stellar population of LLAGN is presented. Our goal is to search for spectroscopic signatures of young and intermediate age stars, and to investigate their relationship with the ionization mechanism in LLAGN. The method used is based on the stellar population synthesis of the UV-optical continuum of the innermost (20-100 pc) regions in these galaxies. Half of the LINERs and TOs of the Palomar catalogue are analysed. It is found that weak-[OI] ([OI]/Hα≤0.25) LLAGN have an intermediate age stellar population that dominates the optical light. But young stellar clusters dominate the UV continuum in these objects. These clusters can co-exist with a black-hole in spatial scales of a few pc. Most of the strong-[OI] LLAGN have a predominantly old stellar population. These results suggest that young and intermediate age stars do not play a significant role in the ionization of LLAGN with strong [OI].To search for other articles by the author(s) go to: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html