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AGN and Megamasers
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 July 2012
Abstract
Luminous extragalactic masers are traditionally referred to as the ‘megamasers’. Those produced by water molecules are associated with accretion disks, radio jets, or outflows in the nuclear regions of active galactic nuclei (AGN). The majority of OH maser sources are instead driven by intense star formation in ultra-luminous infrared galaxies, although in a few cases the OH maser emission traces rotating (toroidal or disk) structures around the nuclear engines of AGN. Thus, detailed maser studies provide a fundamental contribution to our knowledge of the main nuclear components of AGN, constitute unique tools to measure geometric distances of host galaxies, and have a great impact on probing the, so far, paradigmatic Unified Model of AGN.
- Type
- Contributed Papers
- Information
- Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 8 , Symposium S287: Cosmic Masers - from OH to H0 , January 2012 , pp. 323 - 332
- Copyright
- Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2012
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