Active galactic nuclei and nuclear starbursts.

Boyle, B. J.; Roszyczka, M.; Franco, J.; Tenorio-Tagle, G.; Terlevich, R. J.
Bibliographical reference

Revista Mexicana de Astronomia y Astrofisica, Vol. 27, p. 59 - 63

Advertised on:
11
1993
Number of authors
5
IAC number of authors
1
Citations
2
Refereed citations
2
Description
The Starburst model for radio-quiet Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) postulates that the activity seen in most AGN is powered solely by young stars and compact supernova remnants (cSNR) in a burst of star formation at the time when the metal rich core of the spheroid of a normal early type galaxy was formed. In this model, the broad permitted lines characteristic of the Broad Line Region (BLR) and their variability originate in these cSNR. Detailed calculations of strong radiative cooling behind supernova shock waves evolving in a high density medium, combined with static photoionization computations, have shown that cSNR can reproduce most of the basic properties of the BLR in low luminosity AGN. The authors make definite predictions about the lag, the observed delay between sudden changes in the continuum ionizing radiation followed, after some time, by changes in the intensity of the emission lines from the broad line region of AGNs. The authors have proposed that QSOs are the young metal rich cores of massive elliptical galaxies forming at z > 2.0. They predict that the progenitors of QSOs should look like dusty starbursts and be about 4 times more luminous (in bolometric units) and 10 times less frequent than QSOs themselves.