The location and kinematics of the emission line regions in Active Galactic Nuclei

Abstract

This thesis contains the results from a study of the optical emission lines of various samples of active galactic nuclei (AGN). We have used three separate techniques to determine the precise kinematics and the relative location of the emission line regions of AGN: a detailed study of a small sample (10) of AGN, a study of the general emission line properties of two larger samples, and the interpretation of the results from observations using numeric photoionisation models. Although we present results on both the broad line and narrow line regions of AGN the main drive behind this work is the study of the poorly defined intermediate line region using emission from highly ionised species (high ionisation emission lines). Our results derived from observations indicate that a significant proportion of the emission from these species is produced within the central void of the putative dusty torus and that emission from more highly ionised species increases at radii closer to the central engine of the AGN. Furthermore, we find strong evidence that the intermediate region traced by these high ionisation emission lines is generally outflowing from the central engine but there is little evidence of any significant acceleration or deceleration of this material between the inner and outer regions traced by the higher and lower ionisation lines, respectively. Our results derived from numerical photoionisation codes support a model in which this outflowing material responsible for the high ionisation line emission is launched from the inner edge of the the dusty torus.