Oral Presentation
Molecular absorption line study in obscured AGNs
Presenter: Dongjin Kim (Max-Planck Institute for Radioastronomy)
Context. Accretion inflow and jet outflow are fundamental in the explanation of the AGN phenomenon and its evolution. Matter surrounding the SMBH and inner-jet region plays a key role in the accretion process, and impacts also jet formation, collimation and propagation. However, our knowledge about the physical and chemical details of the circum-nuclear gas around an AGN is still limited.
Methods. In order to study the surrounding gas of AGN, we have searched for molecular absorption in front of AGN continuum emission. Absorption lines are detectable regardless of the distance of an AGN, and absorption lines open the possibility to image the spatial distribution of the molecular gas in front of the AGN core and jet via VLBI observations.
Aims. Previous molecular absorption studies have identified only a few sources mostly at cm wavelengths (e.g. Cyg A). In a new project, we address the search for molecular absorption including both cm and mm wavelengths in a larger sample of radio sources using different telescopes. By this, we hope to enlarge the number of absorption systems and identify additional absorption lines for further high-resolution VLBI imaging in the 5-90 GHz range. In this talk, we present the main scientific goals of this project and we show some first results.
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